South Korea has extended the job tenure of Employment Permit
System (EPS) workers to 10 years and eight months. The South Korean Ministry of
Labour had proposed to extend the job tenure of EPS workers in February. Currently,
EPS workers can work for a maximum of four years and 10 months.

The South Korean government approved the proposal last week. “The changes will
be applied to all EPS countries in two phases,” Korea Times reported. According
to the plan, the extended tenure will be applicable to workers from four
countries — Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan — from July 2,
2012.

The extended period provision will be applied in other EPS countries including
Nepal from October. Similarly, the provision will be applied to Uzbekistan,
Bangladesh, Cambodia and Mongolia from October.

South Korea has changed the job period for two reasons — to retain skilled
workers and reduce the number of illegal workers. EPS workers from the third
world used to stay back illegally as the destination offers lucrative salaries.

Similarly, only small and medium level agriculture and manufacturing industries
will benefit from the change. According to the Labour Ministry, only
agriculture firms with less than 30 workers and manufacturing industries with
less than 50 workers can extend the job tenure of their EPS workers.

According to the South Korean government, there were about 167,000 illegal
foreign workers at the end of 2011. The government is planning to reduce at least
15,000 illegal workers in 2012 and it started arresting illegal workers from
early May.