The proposal has been met with sharp rebuke from groups dedicated to women’s and migrants’ rights

Cho Jung-hun [a former advisor at the World Bank], 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. […] "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 [conservative/right populist party], and Kim Min-seok and Lee Jung-mun, lawmakers with the opposition Democratic Party [centrist/center left liberal party].

“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.

“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.

“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.”

  • DankZedong
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    71 year ago

    The funny thing with these kind of things is that it always targets lower paying jobs that are usually filled by migrants.

    I, for example, am a migrant too here in Belgium. But I’m white and have an okay paying job. Funny enough a bill like this would never target me despite being a migrant who might be even worse integrated in society (because I have that privilige as a white migrant and no one cares about it).

    It is indeed slave labor and blatant racism.

  • @Aria@lemmygrad.ml
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    51 year ago

    Cho Jung-hun’s thought process.
    > Me and my husband both work but we still have plenty of time for raising children. What resource do I have that poor families don’t?
    > We have maids; They need maids
    > They can’t afford maids because they earn minimum wage and the maid earns minimum wage.
    > If we increase minimum wage, the maid’s pay would increase so they still wouldn’t be able to afford a maid. Higher wages is a no-go.
    > I know, we need people who are poorer than poor people! Then all the poor people can have maids! I solved it.