[단독] Foreign workers are allowed to load and unload the parcel delivery service… Legislative notice of law amendment by the Ministry of Justice

Enter 2021.03.16 06:00

Foreign workers are put into effect, as early as the second half of the year.
Manpower shortage situation due to explosive increase in parcel delivery due to Corona

The Ministry of Justice is revising the law so that foreign workers can be hired for parcel delivery and unloading. If the amendment passes through the National Assembly, foreign workers will be put into the delivery and unloading business from the second half of this year. This is the long-awaited task of the parcel delivery industry.

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Ministry of Justice recently announced a legislative amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Control Act. The main content of the amendment is to expand the types of businesses in which foreign workers with a visiting employment (H-2) visa can find employment in order to solve the problem of shortage of human resources at industrial sites.

Among the expanding job-permitted industries, the parcel sorting business stands out. According to the amendment, foreign workers with H-2 qualifications will be able to work only for’unloading and loading-related simple workers’ among the logistics terminal operation business. It is a so-called parcel delivery service loading and unloading business.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor, which is the main ministry, held the Foreign Workers Policy Committee last month and decided to allow employment of foreign workers with H-2 qualifications only for parcel loading and unloading. According to the Ministry of Employment, in the case of workplaces with 21 or more domestic insured persons, up to 10 foreign workers can be employed.

The Ministry of Justice is planning to revise the enforcement decree after passing through the legislative notice period to hear opinions on the amendment by the end of April. If the legislative process is easily completed, it is expected to be implemented in the second half of the year.

It has been a long-standing wish of the parcel delivery industry to put foreign workers into the parcel delivery and unloading business. Parcel delivery loading and unloading work is often called ‘Hell’s Alba’ because it is mainly done at night and the intensity of work is high. Despite the rapid increase in parcel delivery, there are many industrial accidents due to the slow pace of facility improvement and staffing.

In the meantime, the parcel delivery industry has been asking the government to allow foreign workers to be put into the parcel delivery and unloading business in order to find people who can work steadily for a long period of time. Within the government, the positions of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which manages the parcel delivery business, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which manages foreign workers, were different. Despite the voices of the industry, the movement to improve the system was slow as concerns over the decline in Korean jobs overlapped.

However, with the recent spread of the new coronavirus (Corona 19), the number of parcels has exploded and the industry’s demand for manpower has risen. The National Federation of Businessmen (Jeon Gyeongryeon) also issued a statement in November last year asking for the inclusion of parcel delivery and unloading services in the employment permit system for foreigners.

The news that the Ministry of Justice has announced an amendment to the law brought a welcome voice from the parcel service industry. An official in the parcel delivery industry said, “The loading and unloading business was a representative field in which it was difficult to find people to work in among the parcel delivery companies,” and said, “If foreign workers can be hired, it will be helpful to the entire parcel delivery business.”

On the other hand, there are criticisms in the labor world that not only job losses but also the delivery industry is trying to fill in foreign workers who are behind the scenes in improving infrastructure and have no voice.