Korean companies accused of exploiting workers in Vietnam
The Korea Herald
6-01-2015
More
than a year ago, nearly a thousand workers from a South Korean-owned company in
Vietnam walked out in protest against the company’s “irrational regulation” that
bans them going to the toilet.
The employees at the handbag manufacturing company lamented that the company
gave them a warning and slashed their wages when they went to the toilet “too
often.” They were only allowed to use the restrooms from 9:30-10:30 a.m. and
from 2-3 p.m., with only three keys to the toilet available per production line.
Each line has about 100 workers.
It is only one of the human rights abuse cases that have been raised in
Korean-owned companies across Vietnam, a recent report by Korean Trans National
Corporation Watch, a network of human rights advocacy groups, revealed.
According to the 64-page report based on interviews with laborers, companies and
civic organizations, local workers have suffered from unreasonably low pay, long
working hours and constant insults from employers.
Last year, Korean companies paid Vietnamese workers $90 to $135 a month, but the
Vietnam General Confederation of Labor views this as being far lower than the
basic cost of living, considering the soaring inflation in the country.
Kim Jong-chul, a lawyer for Advocate for Public Interest Law, told the Korea
Herald that the Vietnamese government shared responsibility for the situation,
as it is accused of keeping the country’s minimum wage low to attract more
foreign direct investment.
In 2011, some 2,000 Vietnamese workers for a Hanoi-based Korean company went on
a strike, demanding bonus payments and pay raise for overtime. Consumer prices
in the first half of the year increased by 13.29 percent, but wages at the
company did not rise in line with this, standing at $75 a month.
The report also shed light on verbal and physical abuse in workplaces, noting
that Vietnamese workers could not make a complaint about unfair treatment in
fear of dismissal.
An unidentified Korean-run company in Vietnam, where the majority of workers
were women aged 18 to 25, were accused of forcing female workers to sign
contracts that banned them from getting pregnant at least for three years after
they were hired. They also had to consult with the company about their pregnancy
plans.
According to VGCL, 4 in 10 strikes that occurred in Vietnam between 2009 and
2014 were staged by workers at Korean-owned companies.
About 3,000 Korean companies, of which 66 percent are manufacturers, have
entered the Vietnamese market since the early 1990s, investing more than $29
billion there. South Korea is the third-biggest investor in Vietnam, after Japan
and Singapore.
“Most of the strikes in Vietnam took place as Korean companies did not abide by
labor laws,” said the Kim, who went on a 10-day field trip in Vietnam to look
into human rights situation there.
Although many of workers in Southeastern Asian countries have waged strikes,
calling for a change in their working environments, the Korean companies have
ignored their demands in order to keep production costs down, he said.
Kim, thus, underscored the importance of the role of the Korean Embassy in
Vietnam in tackling the human rights violations there.
“The Korean Embassy in Vietnam is currently playing a role only in promoting
Korean business in Vietnam, but it should expand its role to monitoring Korean
companies and preventing them from violating local workers’ human rights,” Kim
concluded.
By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)