"Families of Nepali workers have suffered tragic damage from an unexpected disaster. If a temporary return home is necessary, we ask for employers' attention and cooperation, including granting leave."
South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor has asked employers who hired Nepali workers through the Employment Permit System (E-9) to consider granting temporary leave for workers to return home if damage to their families is confirmed. But because employers who allow such leave receive no institutional benefit, the decision ultimately rests on their goodwill.
The ministry recently sent text messages carrying that message to 13,700 workplaces employing Nepali workers, according to the ministry on the 2nd. It is the first time the ministry has sent workplaces employing foreign workers a message urging them to consider leave in connection with disaster damage in a worker's home country.
There is no administrative manual or regulation requiring the ministry to send separate notices to workplaces when a disaster strikes a country that sends workers to Korea. The measure was taken at the discretion of the responsible ministry division in the absence of a written guideline. "While reviewing what steps were possible for Nepali workers who suffered enormous damage, we decided to send a message asking employers to consider temporary return leave," a ministry official said.
The damage from the massive flooding in Nepal has been severe enough to draw emergency assistance from the international community. Anxiety is mounting among Nepali workers who are working alone in Korea while their families remain at home. Foreign media reported that the death toll from the flooding has surpassed 1,000, with several thousand more missing.
Nepal is one of the key countries filling labor shortages at Korean small and mid-sized companies and in farming and fishing communities. It sends the largest number of workers among the 17 countries that supply labor through the Employment Permit System. As of June, about 48,000 of the roughly 286,000 workers in Korea under the system were Nepali nationals, or 16.8% of the total.
Still, few Nepali workers are expected to actually take return leave. Foreign workers who enter under the Employment Permit System are covered by the Labor Standards Act on the same terms as Korean nationals and can use statutory annual leave. But the ministry's notice is a recommendation with no legal force, and given the nature of the small manufacturers and livestock and agricultural operations where many Nepali workers are employed, replacements are hard to find when a worker takes extended leave to return home. The burden of disrupted operations falls on the workplace.
"Whether to grant leave is a matter for labor and management to decide on their own," a ministry official said. "At this point, no separate institutional benefits or support measures have been prepared for employers who approve such leave." That leaves room for criticism that the ministry's departure from standard practice will produce results only if it is followed by practical support, such as help securing replacement workers.
