Migrant Workers Press for Employment Permit Reform as Abuse Blocks Job Mobility

Migrant workers are calling for a redesign of South Korea’s Employment Permit System after repeated cases in which workers facing violence or verbal abuse could not easily leave their workplaces. The central issue is the rule that makes job changes difficult without employer consent. For many workers, visa status and employment are tied together, turning a complaint into a direct threat to income and legal stay.

Transfer Limits Create a Blind Spot

The system has helped small manufacturers, farms, construction sites and selected service businesses fill chronic labor shortages. But the same structure can restrict workers who need to escape unsafe or abusive workplaces. When wage arrears, excessive hours, threats or assault occur, the burden of proof and slow procedures often leave workers stuck. If an employer refuses to approve a transfer, a worker may endure poor conditions for much of a roughly three-year work period.

Labor Shortages Meet Rights Risks

Migrant labor is now essential to many local industrial zones and rural communities in Korea. Still, a policy designed to secure manpower can create serious rights risks when mobility is too tightly controlled. Limiting transfers may reduce short-term turnover for employers, but it can raise long-term costs through accidents, disputes, loss of skilled workers and reputational damage in export supply chains.

Reform Direction

The demand is not unlimited job hopping. Workers are seeking fast, independent transfer rights when violence, sexual harassment, unpaid wages or safety violations are credible or urgent. A fair process would allow labor authorities, local governments and interpretation support groups to verify facts while protecting victims. Reform has become a labor rights issue and a practical workforce policy issue for Korea’s small-business economy.