외국인근로자의 법률적 보호와 사업주 책임

The rise in the number of foreign workers in Korea is followed by continued human rights violation of these workers. In addition, many of them are exposed to accidents in their workplaces. There are many reasons behind their vulnerabilities to occupational accidents. First, due to the differences in culture and language, some foreign workers face difficulties in adapting to the Korean society and end up being a social outcast. Korea’s inadequate policy on foreign workforce also plays a role. To solve these problems, a shift in the related policy is called for in order to improve the legal ground of foreign workers, which includes undocumented workers. Also, the Korean people in general need to embrace the foreign workers as the members of society. Even if there are policies in place to protect the health right of foreign workers, such policies will be useless if the beneficiaries of the policies – foreign workers – lack understanding of the policies. Also, the policies will be ineffective if they are not supported by appropriate occupational illness and accident prevention efforts. Therefore, to protect the health right of foreign workers in relation to occupational safety, a comprehensive action is called for, which includes providing medical service such as medical examination and education to improve one’s health. A provision on education for foreign workers should be included in the Article 12 of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers, to ensure that foreign workers are also the subjects of occupational safety and health training. In addition, health education should be included as a part of foreign workers’ vocational training. Also, it is advised that safety training materials be published or explained in foreign workers’ own languages, to help them better understand the training materials.