On February 2025, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (“MOEL”) announced its Workplace Labor Inspection Plan for 2025. The key highlights of the plan are as follows:
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Focus on Structural Reforms and High-Risk Industries
The MOEL will shift the focus of its inspections from simply identifying individual legal violations to addressing industry-specific structural vulnerabilities that lead to non-compliance. Inspections will therefore prioritize identifying and resolving systemic risk factors that are tied to each industry sector.
Further, the MOEL will strengthen its oversight in high-risk industries, considering factors such as business forecasts and regional industrial trends. Key sectors include construction and shipbuilding, where wage arrears frequently occur. In addition, the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Office has designated the “Information and Communication, Specialized Science and Technology Service Industry” as a key business sector for labor inspections in 2025.
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Implementation of Integrated Inspections
The MOEL will conduct integrated inspections targeting workplaces classified as “complex-issue workplaces” - those deemed high-risk under both the Labor Standards Act (i.e., labor management violations) and the Industrial Safety and Health Act (i.e., occupational safety). This approach aims to enhance the effectiveness of inspections by identifying workplaces with overlapping vulnerabilities.
For the construction industry, the MOEL will identify ten major construction companies with histories of serious accidents or frequent wage arrears, conducting inspections across all nationwide construction sites operated by these companies. Towards this end, the MOEL will:
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Establishment of Objective Criteria for Special Inspections
Until now, the MOEL has prioritized its special inspections on workplaces identified by outside sources such as media reports. In 2025, it will instead use quantified criteria such as:
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Workplaces where workers die due to serious human rights violations (e.g., assault by employer, workplace harassment, sexual harassment) or excessive working hours will automatically qualify for special inspections. These special inspections will be conducted under the integrated inspection model outlined in Section 2 above.
It is expected that the MOEL will release further details on its labor inspection protocols for 2025.
[Korean Version]
