Minimum Wages for Seafarers by the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries,
which stipulates that the minimum wages for foreign migrant seafarers be
decided by a collective agreement between a relevant labor union of
seafarers - the union comprising Korean laborers only without letting any
foreigners participate - and a group of fishing vessel owners as a "special
case."
[Table 6] Comparison between Minimum Wages of Korean and Foreign Migrant
Seafarers of Coastal Fishing Vessels over 20 tons
Years
Korean Seafarers
(A)
Foreign Migrant
Seafarers (B)
Ratio (A/B)
2007
906,000
752,000
83%
2016
1,641,000
1,265,000
77%
115. Wages of seafarers is basically performance-based, total revenue net of total
costs on top of minimum wages divided by a predetermined ratio which does
not count in foreign migrant workers. The structure works against foreign
migrant workers and exacerbates the violation of their human rights as, the
more they work, the bigger the Korean counterparties' share becomes.
116. On July 16, 2018, the Korea Federation of SMEs has suggested an
apprenticeship scheme for foreign migrant workers at a round-table conference
with the Minister of SMEs and Startups in which the apprentice will be
guaranteed 80% of the minimum wage in their first year in Korea, 90% in the
second year, and 100% in the third. In response to this, two revision bills to the
Minimum Wage Act have been submitted to the National Assembly in August
2017, which allows a different set of minimum wages for the migrant workers
having been in Korea less than two years or employs a separate set of
minimum wages for the migrant workers in agriculture and livestock industries.
117. The idea of employing the different sets of minimum wages is flying in the
face of Korean laws such as Article 6 under the Labor Standards Act and
international agreements such as the Convention, infringing human rights and
rights to work of migrant workers, and eventually compromising working
conditions of the entire population of workers in Korea as the workforce
deemed "cheap and replaceable" would increase.
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