Labour inspection for 2023 (Part 2)

21 March 2023 3 min read

By Hoin Lee

At a glance

Following our update dated 26 January 2023, which concerned the ‘Anticipated Plan for Labour Inspection for 2023’, we are writing to provide you with additional information on the status of labour inspections this year based on a recent press release by the Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL).

Reproduced with the permission of the authors Weon Jung Kim, Ki Young Kim, Hoin Lee and Paul Cho at Kim & Chang.

Regular inspection

As a general practice, regular labour inspections are conducted in the first and second half of each year. Labour inspections in the first half of the year consist of the Labour Office sending official letters to employers subject to regular labour inspections starting from March. In 2023, businesses which (i) employ a large number of vulnerable groups, such as young employees, women or foreign labourers, (ii) employ a large number of non-regular workers (fixed-term and part-time workers, subcontracted workers, etc.), or (iii) have not undergone a regular labour inspection for the past three years, are likely to be selected for a regular labour inspection.

Ad hoc inspection

The MOEL announced that, in order to establish law and order through labour inspections, it will focus on ‘five major illegal practices’, namely, (i) the misuse / abuse of the comprehensive wage system or the fixed overtime allowance, (ii) delaying the payment of wages, (iii) unfair labour practices, (iv) workplace harassment and (v) unfair hiring. Accordingly, each Regional Labour Office has selected certain industries or practices that they will focus on for ad hoc labour inspections in 2023:

Seoul Regional Labour Office: multiplex movie theatres, hotels and wedding convention centres, and 498 tech companies where a large number of young workers are employed and where the demand for labour is increasing due to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
Jungbu Regional Labour Office, Busan Regional Labour Office and Gwangju Regional Labour Office: acts of workplace harassment or sexual harassment at small and medium-sized financial institutions.

Special inspection

Under its zero tolerance policy, the MOEL plans to conduct special labour inspections on businesses that have been subject to public criticism due to serious violations of laws, such as repeatedly delaying the payment of wages or occurrences of sexual harassment or workplace harassment. Additionally, observing that a toxic corporate culture contributes to occurrences of sexual harassment or workplace harassment, the MOEL plans to assess the state of a company’s workplace culture by conducting employee surveys during the special inspection and encourage improvement of the company’s workplace culture.

It is expected that the labour inspections in 2023 will focus on certain issues, employee groups, and industries as explained above. Also, in order to improve the effectiveness of the labour inspections, the MOEL is expected to conduct joint inspections of labour and occupational safety issues, impose more aggressive sanctions for violations of the law, and disclose the inspection results to the public.

Given the MOEL’s focus on utilizing labour inspections as a compliance tool, it will be more important than ever to be well prepared for such labour inspection in 2023. Therefore, we recommend that companies proactively prepare for a labour inspection by ensuring compliance with labour-related laws and regulations and diagnosing and improving the workplace culture.