The domestic construction industry is in a state of emergency insecuring labor due to the decreasing number of professionalconstruction technicians and aging trends, and the inflow offoreign workers into Korea continues to rise to solve this problem.T...
The domestic construction industry is in a state of emergency insecuring labor due to the decreasing number of professionalconstruction technicians and aging trends, and the inflow offoreign workers into Korea continues to rise to solve this problem.There are many prior research papers on the problem of theshortage of domestic construction engineers, but most paperspresent solutions to the problem of the shortage of constructionworkers, focusing on the inevitable construction environment dueto the property of the construction industry. In addition, most ofthe solutions are comprehensive, such as the suggestion ofgovernment policies, improvement of the construction environmentand improvement of workers' welfare.The present study looked at the problems of the government policy regarding the improvement of the employment environmentin the existing construction market and drew improvement measures.Comparing the trends of the construction industry's income overthe past seven years with the typical manufacturing sector,compared with the average labor income of the entire industry, itis, and far lower than, the current poor working environment. Forthis reason, the advantages of pursuing a career in theconstruction industry are disappearing and the insufficientpersonnel are filled with foreign workers who entered the countrylegally through the employment permit system.The vicious circle further hinders the wage increase ofconstruction workers, which makes the job environment in theconstruction market worse.Among the government's major policies regarding construction andemployment environment, first of all, the problem of theemployment permit system is to introduce foreign workersthrough the employment permit system without an accuratestatistical investigation of illegal foreign workers. Second, theabolition of the construction participation system is actually losingits purpose to prevent back pay because there are many thingsthat do not fit the reality. Third, the purpose of the constructionretirement benefit system has well-intention, but it is insufficientto fully protect workers who are in the blind spot of the law.As a way to improve government policy,First, Statistics Korea, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Employmentand Labor, Human Resources Development Service of Korea,Management Corporation and related government agencies suggested that a clear survey of foreign workers is needed toreduce illegal foreign workers.Second, it was proposed that the appropriate labor cost reflectionon the increase in indirect labor costs should be made mandatoryfor certain specialized industries.The last, it was proposed that the government's obligation to signup for the construction retirement benefit system of constructionworkers should be made to all workplaces regardless of the sizeof the construction. Also, the electronic commuting card systemshould be mandatory to complement the problems of the existinggovernment's.The proposed improvement is expected to help the employmentenvironment of the construction market a little bit and contributeto the increase in the use of domestic construction skilled workers.