외국인고용법상 사업장변경 제한에 관한 연구

Abstract

When the original Employment of Foreign Workers Law came into effect, it strictly limited the number of job changes for foreign workers. Foreign workers, civic organizations, employers and Korean workers responded to this policy differently, depending upon their interests. Recognizing the frequent human rights violation by employers, the government eased the requirement and made some ambiguous concepts clear. In spite of government efforts, foreign workers and civic organizations insisted relaxing the job change requirements a little more, increasing the number of changes, and even abolishing the limitation itself for the reason that there were still some possibility of human rights violation. On the other hand, employers wanted the law to be more tightened. For they reasoned the law made it difficult to secure labor supply and control wage. This paper examines whether this controversy is due to the deficiency of the law itself – that is, whether it includes human-right violation factors, or due to circumstantial factors other than the law itself. This paper argues that there are three reasons for the heated controversy: first, right to terminate employment contract is not given to foreign workers; second, because the requirements for job change is not clear-cut but very ambiguous, it is difficult for foreign workers to prove them; third, the document, which employers are supposed to submit in order to check whether foreign workers’ reasons for job changes are true or not, functions as the most important factor in deciding on job changes. In order to make the practice more human-right friendly, this paper makes three suggestions. First, the law has to be revised so that foreign workers can also have the right to terminate employment contract. Second, a neutral institution which will have a final say about whether the reason for job change exists or not. Finally, the Employment Center must provide for foreign workers information about the companies which have job openings.