this increase rate of minimum wage in 2017 is lower than the corresponding rate (8.1%) of 2016 but is similar to the rates in 2014 (7.2%) and 2015 (7.1%). The underpayment rate (the proportion of workers who are paid less than minimum wage, as percentage of all wage workers) began to decline after it peaked at 12.8% in 2009, but rebounded in 2013.The underpayment rate per year is as follows: Proportion of workers paid less than minimum wage, as percentage of all wage workers (Unit: %) Year 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Rate 11.9 10.8 12.8 11.5 10.8 9.6 11.4 12.1 11.5 (Source: Minimum Wage Commission, 2017 Analysis on Wage Conditions, etc. for Minimum Wage Deliberation, June 2016, p.12.) ２２ On 17 September 2007, the NHRCK expressed, to the National Assembly and the Government, its opinion that the legislation should be enacted and revised at an early time in order to protect the EDW by securing minimum labour standards for these workers, guaranteeing them three basic labour rights and applying four social insurances to them. In addition, on 27 November 2014, the NHRCK recommended that the coverage of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) should be made more substantial for the EDW of the six occupations which are already governed by the IACI Act; and that the coverage of the IACI should be expanded to cover all of the EDW. In 2008, a special provision on EDW (Article 125) was inserted to the IACI Act, entitling the EDW in the nine occupations (four occupations in July 2008; two additional occupations in May 2012; and three additional occupations in July 2016) where those workers exclusively belong to their current workplaces to the protection of the IACI. However, ten years have passed since this legal revision, with no additional legislative action being taken to promote protection of the EDW. ２３ The Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of the ROK have showed some significant changes in their practices of applying the criminal penalties of obstruction of business to workers’ strikes, as described below: a. The Constitutional Court (in Decision No. 2009Heonba168 on 29 April 2010), in relation to the petition for unconstitutionality of Article 314 (1) (obstruction of business) of the Criminal Act, stressed that an industrial action, even if it inevitably causes interference with business, is a fundamental right under the Constitution and, therefore, additional evidence is required to establish that the industrial action constitutes a crime of interference with business, although the Court upheld its position that the provision is constitutional. b. The Supreme Court (Full-bench Decision No.2007Do482 on 17 March 2011) ruled that a strike may be established as a crime of obstruction of business only when the two additional conditions of ‘suddenness of the strike concerned’ and ‘serious confusion or enormous damage due to the strike’ are satisfied and that the burden of proof is on the prosecution. ２４ According to the aforementioned survey conducted by the NHRCK with regard to hate speech, all of the respondents (about 1,000 persons) who are women, sexual minorities, persons with disabilities or migrants were fearful of hate speech and felt threatened by relevant crimes, and some of them even hid their identity in fear of their exposure to hate speech and relevant crimes. More than half of the respondents said that they did not know how to react any hate speech made online or offline against themselves. ２５ On 25 August 2016, the NHRCK recommended the Ministry of Justice to revise the Refugee Act and other relevant legislation so that the reasons for the decision not to refer a refugee status application to the deliberation process should be minimized to non-compliance with formal requirements and that all applications should be referred to the deliberation process, except for the cases where it is apparent that the applicant concerned is not a refugee. However, the Ministry of Justice refused to accept the NHRCK’s recommendation, 11 / 12