hankyoreh

To mark International Domestic Workers’ Day on June 16, 2020, domestic workers in South Korea hold a press conference outside the National Assembly in Seoul where they demand the guarantee of their legal rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Baek So-ah/The Hankyoreh)

A controversial bill has been submitted to South Korea’s National Assembly that would allow migrant domestic helpers to be paid less than the minimum wage. Groups that advocate for migrants and women objected that the bill basically aims to create slave labor.

Cho Jung-hun, a lawmaker with the minor party Transition Korea, announced in a press conference at the National Assembly on Tuesday that he was sponsoring a bill that would exclude foreign domestic workers from the minimum law requirement. (The bill would revise Korea’s Act on Employment Improvement of Domestic Workers.)

“The Republic of Korea is struggling with an abysmal birth rate. A practical solution is needed for the younger generation, in which dual-income families are the norm,” Cho said, explaining his motivation behind introducing the bill.

“In Singapore, foreign domestic helpers are paid between 700,000 and 1 million won a month, helping young people strike a balance between their jobs and families. If this bill becomes law, it would enable families to hire foreign help for around 1 million won a month, as in Singapore,” the lawmaker added.

The bills’ cosponsors were Park Soo-young, Suh Jung-sook, Yoo Sang-bum, Jun Joo-hyae, Cho Eun-hee, Choi Seung-jae, Choi Hyung-du and Thae Yong-ho, lawmakers with the ruling People Power Party, and Kim Min-seok and Lee Jung-mun, lawmakers with the opposition Democratic Party.

Activists retorted that this was blatant discrimination against migrant workers.

“This amounts to a call for slave labor. Korean domestic workers already face problems because they are not subject to the Labor Standards Act, and now a bill has come up that would completely strip migrant workers of minimum wage protection. That’s a serious human rights violation against migrant workers,” said Lee Han-suk, director of the Migration & Human Rights Institute, in a phone call with the Hankyoreh.

Some activists accused lawmakers of engineering a sneaky solution to the issue of care work.

“One problem is the tendency to undervalue care work, but another is the idea of serving women in Korea by exploiting the labor of female migrants who are in an even more precarious position. The issue of care work isn’t something that can be resolved through this kind of cheap labor,” said Kwon Su-hyeon, head of Korea Women’s Political Solidarity.

The bill also elicited swift rebukes from the realm of politics.

“While the UN has designated today [March 21] as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a bill was introduced today that would stir up racial discrimination,” said Shin Ji-hye, spokesperson for the Basic Income Party.

“The bill that would let foreign domestic workers be paid less than the minimum wage basically suggests that discrimination and exploitation can be tolerated if they help us improve the birth rate,” Shin said.

“It’s horrifying to imagine what our future will be like if children grow up assuming that it’s perfectly normal to exploit and discriminate against people simply because they are migrant workers.”

By Park Go-eun, staff reporter; Oh Se-jin, staff reporter

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