[Press conference] Joint Press Conference by Migrant, Labor and Human Rights Organizations Condemning the Racist Remarks of Liberty Korea Party Leader Hwang Kyo-ahn, Who Wants to Strip Migrant Workers Even of the Minimum Wage

We strongly condemn Hwang Kyo-ahn’s racist remarks, which seek to strip even the minimum wage from migrant workers in harsh conditions! Party leader Hwang must immediately apologize for his discriminatory remarks and retract them!

1. Liberty Korea Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn reportedly said at a meeting with small and medium-sized business owners in the Busan area, “Because foreigners have not contributed to our country, I think it is not fair to keep their wages at the same level.” In a word, this is the culmination of outrageous remarks that openly encourage discrimination against migrant workers. Employers’ organizations, led by the Korea Federation of SMEs, have claimed that the minimum wage of migrant workers should be cut; this led some Liberty Korea Party lawmakers to introduce discriminatory bills, and now the party leader himself has stepped forward to defend the claim, making it clear that the entire Liberty Korea Party is a party that discriminates against migrant workers and migrants. We strongly condemn party leader Hwang’s racist remarks. Hwang must apologize right away and retract his statement!

2. Every one of party leader Hwang’s statements is a lie. The claim that foreigners have not contributed to Korea only reveals ignorance of the fact that, over the 30 years of the history of migrant labor, migrant workers have worked in the lowest-tier 3D industries that Korean nationals will not do, and have sustained the Korean economy. If it is not ignorance, it is deliberate disregard and a false statement. According to a 2017 report by the IOM Migration Research and Training Centre (MRTC), about one million migrant workers contributed an economic effect of 74.1 trillion won in 2016, made up of a production effect of 54.6 trillion won and a consumption effect of 19.5 trillion won, and this was projected to rise steadily and exceed 100 trillion won in 2020. Even without such figures, anyone can tell from a few news articles that without migrant workers, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock and fishing, construction and services would stop functioning immediately. Migrant workers work and live as members of society, pay taxes, engage in consumption and create related jobs. If anything, Korean society has contributed little to the formation of migrant workers’ labor power. Korea paid nothing until a migrant worker became an adult worker and came to Korea. Moreover, the Korean government and companies brought in migrant workers because they needed low-wage labor. Even so, to propose cutting even the minimum wage is to eat the liver of a flea, and nothing other than the greedy heart of Nolbu (the miserly brother in a Korean folktale) who squeezes the weak even more.

3. Cutting the minimum wage of migrant workers is not possible under domestic law or international law. Article 6 (Equal Treatment) of the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법) states that working conditions may not be discriminated against on the basis of sex, nationality, religion or social status, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111), which the Korean government has joined and ratified, prohibits all discrimination and exclusion based on race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin. The United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination also prohibits discrimination based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin, and obliges states parties to take measures for this purpose. Both domestic law and international law strongly provide that discriminatory treatment based on nationality, skin color or race is not allowed. Whether party leader Hwang, who comes from a legal background, made the remarks knowing this or not, he cannot but be called unqualified as the leader of the main opposition party.

4. In reality, migrant workers do not even receive the minimum wage properly, and their working conditions are below the minimum. According to the report “Below the Minimum: 2018 Survey of the Working Conditions and Housing Environment of Migrant Workers,” published in March 2019 by the Migration and Human Rights Institute, a simple calculation of migrant workers’ long working hours and wages shows that, on average, they receive wages below the minimum wage. Furthermore, since 2017 the Ministry of Employment and Labor has implemented a “guideline for collecting room and board fees,” under which 8 to 20 percent is deducted from migrant workers’ monthly pay as room and board, so the rise in the minimum wage has had little effect on migrant workers. On top of this, employers cut migrant workers’ wages in various ways, such as not counting cleaning time, preparation time and wrap-up time as working hours, or paying reduced overtime allowances. In agriculture, livestock and fishing, an exception applies under Article 63 of the Labor Standards Act, so workers do not even receive overtime pay. And if the wages and working conditions of migrant workers deteriorate, the effect extends to other workers as downward pressure, making overall working conditions worse. Discriminatory application of the minimum wage is neither possible nor permissible.

5. No matter how urgently votes are needed ahead of the general election, migrant workers and migrants must not be made scapegoats. The Liberty Korea Party may intend to win votes through far-right behavior that encourages discrimination against socially vulnerable groups such as workers, women and sexual minorities, and that practices racial discrimination, but society will not tolerate this. Party leader Hwang must immediately apologize for his discriminatory remarks and retract them!

6. 6. 20

All participants of the joint press conference by migrant, labor and human rights organizations