The Labor Department is launching an initiative to monitor wage abuse in information technology (IT) and research and development (R&D) companies in the Daejeon and Cheongju regions. This action follows the discovery of multiple knowledge service firms that failed to pay overtime, night, and holiday wages during previous inspections.
Starting August 21, the Ministry of Employment and Labor will conduct the 'Fifth Relay Inspection on Wage Abuse by Region' targeting IT and R&D firms in Daejeon and Cheongju. The department has been systematically inspecting regions and industries suspected of wage abuse since May, based on anonymous reports to its wage abuse reporting center.
Daejeon and Cheongju were selected for this round of inspections due to a high rate of unpaid labor identified during the first round of inspections conducted from February to March. During that period, the Labor Department inspected 101 suspected businesses nationwide, confirming unpaid overtime, night, and holiday wages in 34 cases.
Specifically, six cases were identified under the jurisdiction of the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office. Two cases were found in both Daejeon and Cheongju, with five of the violations occurring in knowledge service sectors such as R&D and software development.
For instance, one software development company paid only for the fixed overtime hours without verifying actual working hours, resulting in a total of 25 million won in unpaid wages for 14 workers. Another R&D firm failed to specify the calculation method for overtime pay on its wage statements and did not pay one worker 13 million won for hours worked beyond the fixed overtime.
Since the first round of inspections, anonymous reports related to knowledge service firms in Daejeon and Cheongju have continued. Reports indicate that some companies do not provide holiday pay or substitute holidays despite being able to accurately measure working hours, and they only recognize some holiday work while failing to pay for weekday overtime.
In response, the Labor Department will conduct the fifth round of inspections in the Daejeon and Cheongju regions to reassess the use of fixed wages and prevent abuses such as unpaid labor under the guise of fixed wages.
Particularly in the IT and R&D sectors, where working hours can vary based on project schedules and workloads, there is a risk that fixed overtime may be used to bypass accurate recording of working hours. Therefore, labor authorities will focus on reviewing clock-in and clock-out records along with actual wage payment details.
Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon stated, "We will eradicate improper labor practices through repeated inspections in regions and industries where wage abuse is suspected, ensuring a workplace culture where workers are fairly compensated for their labor."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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