Counseling center for foreign workers opens on July

A counseling center for foreign workers has opened to promptly counsel foreign workers who experience difficulties due to cultural differences and language barriers and their employers about their problems by phone (Tel. : Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do).

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the HRD Service of Korea said, "A counseling center for foreign workers that has the functions of a call center will begin to operate from July 1."

Thanks to the opening of the center, foreign workers and their employers who have not received labor counseling due to time and place constraints will be able to receive such counseling simply by calling 1577-0071 anywhere and anytime.

Marriage immigrants who can speak at least two languages provide counseling about various labor problems and grievances at the center.

Of the 25 counselors, 23 are marriage immigrants some of whom worked for manufacturing firms in Korea under the Employment Permit System.

Counseling is available in ten languages among the languages of the 15 sending countries under the Employment Permit System.

MOEL plans to double the number of counselors to 50 and expand the number of available languages.

* Available languages : Korean, English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, Mongolian, Uzbek and Cambodian

Counseling services are provided 365 days a year. Foreign workers can receive direct counseling from 9:00 to 18:00, and make a booking for counseling and use automatic answering services (ARS) after working hours.

Meanwhile, the center also has counseling rooms to provide in-depth counseling to foreign workers and their employers in Ansan and its surrounding areas.

"The launch of the counseling center for foreign workers has great significance in that it has upgraded support services for foreign workers in the era of 1.3 million foreign workers in Korea and provided jobs to marriage immigrants considering their characteristics," said Lee Chae-pil, Minister of Employment and Labor.

He said, "I hope the center will reduce workplace conflicts, improve foreign workers' rights and interests and help SMEs to manage their workforces."

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