The government said Sunday it will launch a crackdown on several companies that allegedly exploit young people as cheap labor.
The move comes as several well-known companies from various sectors have come under fire for allegedly having paid absurdly low wages to young people hired without any prospect of becoming full-time employees.
The practice has earned the moniker, “passion pay,” as these apprentices and interns are expected to be “passionate enough to put up with poor treatment.”
The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it will soon decide which industries and companies to target and begin the special clampdown within the next two weeks.
“There are many cases in which companies use ‘passion’ as an excuse to exploit young people,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity, adding the ministry will find out whether they have violated any labor laws.
Passion pay recently sparked controversy after a prominent fashion designer, Lee Sang-bong, was found to have paid only 100,000 won (US$91.27) to trainees, including overtime pay, a month. Full-time workers earned 1.1 million won per month, also below the minimum wage, according to unionized fashion industry workers.
WeMakePrice, a popular social commerce website, was also found to have treated its 11 probationary workers in a similar manner last month.
These workers, who were hired on condition of completing a probationary period successfully, were paid 50,000 won a day and were given a full-time workload, they said.
All of them were fired after two weeks because they didn’t “meet the requirements,” according to the company.
The firm re-hired them after the controversy. (Yonhap)
