[단독]Let’s go to Amcharm and Kotra… Turned to Seoul City’s’Recommendation for total inspection of foreign labor

The Seoul Metropolitan Government changed the’Executive Order for Corona 19 Diagnosis Test for Foreign Workers’ issued on the 17th to’Recommendation’. Seoul cited the direct reason that the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters requested the withdrawal of the measure, but it is interpreted that it was due to the criticism that it was “discriminatory to compel diagnostic tests based on nationality rather than work and residential environment”. In particular, on the 19th, it was confirmed that a protest from a foreign company that entered Korea as a high-ranking official from the US Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM, Amcham) → Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) → high-ranking government officials was delivered.

On the 19th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said, “As the Chinese script requested the withdrawal of the foreign worker’s diagnostic test order, on the 17th, the administrative order for mandatory diagnostic testing was changed to’recommendation for inspection for high-risk workplaces’. Enclosed) Foreign workers at high-risk workplaces in work environments and Koreans employed in the same workplace are advised to undergo a corona19 diagnostic test by the 31st.”

Accordingly, sanctions such as fines and claims for reimbursement rights for failure to comply with an administrative order have been eliminated. The city of Seoul explained that if a full inspection is not performed, “a fine of 2 million won or less must be paid, and if a confirmed person comes out, the right to reimburse the cost of quarantine may be claimed.”

Although the superficial reason for the Seoul city’s change of position is the request of the script, it is analyzed that the’discrimination controversy’ that has poured out from various fields has also served as the background. In particular, on the 18th, Amcham officially delivered a letter to the city of the protest, and filed a grievance at the KOTRA Foreign Investment Ombudsman Office. An official from Amcham said, “From the first day of the Seoul city’s administrative order, protest calls from member companies poured out, and they were collected and delivered.”

Amcham is a non-profit corporation that has foreign companies in Korea as members. Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Microsoft are members. According to an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the letter sent by Amcham included a request for reasonable application of the working environment and period of residence of foreign workers. Whether or not they are susceptible to infectious diseases is the worker’s working and residential environment, and since it is not nationality, it is unfair for all foreign workers to undergo diagnostic tests.

It was confirmed that the KOTRA Ombudsman Office directly delivered the complaints of Amcham to senior government officials. The Foreign Investment Ombudsman is the government’s grievance handling organization targeting domestic foreign companies, and is under the responsibility of former Public Procurement Service Chief Kim Seong-jin. A KOTRA official said in a call with the JoongAng Ilbo prior to the announcement of Seoul on the same day, “Only the ombuds have delivered the opinions of the investment industry to senior government officials.”

On the morning of that day, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and Seoul National University also issued a statement on the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s actions. In a statement in the name of Chairman Choi Young-ae, the Human Rights Commission said, “Foreigners filed a complaint against the Seoul administrative order, saying,’It feels like hate and racism.’ .

Seoul National University announced that “the root cause of the outbreak of infectious diseases is the working conditions and poor living conditions that are vulnerable to infection due to dense, close, and confined,” and said, “It is serious discrimination that only foreigners are required to have diagnostic tests.” “This measure is a violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in All Forms (Racism Elimination Convention) ratified by the government.”

Reporter Heo Jeong-won [email protected]