Hussein and Roma are a married couple. He came to Korea on a tourist visa (C2) from Bangladesh in 1999 and is working at a stainless steel kitchenware company without registration. Meanwhile, a boy was born. is 4 years old The couple worked in CNC, milling, welding, and pressing jobs. For example, married couples are migrant workers. As long as they worked together for 7 years, they are better than most skilled workers.
It was sunset when the couple came to the center. He held the child in his hand and came to the center for counseling. Black eyes are clear because of how bright the child is. There’s no sadness in your eyes Bright like any other child. Just in time, there was a cookie on the desk, and after wiping away his runny nose, he took it and ate it. Are you very hungry?
Hussein’s story is that the couple hadn’t received a salary for four months. No, four months each, as well as a couple? At the moment of consultation, I was puzzled and asked the truth several times. It’s true. The couple worked for the company they currently work for for a year, but they haven’t received a salary for the past 4 months. The wage that the couple did not receive from the employer was 9.5 million won.
Who is lying?
This means that the couple had been subjected to forced labor close to personal restraint in order to receive unpaid money. What was even more surprising was the four-year-old child born to them. The employer left the child at a nearby daycare center to receive the couple’s labor. Of course, the daycare center had not been able to pay the original fee for 4 months. I can imagine that he lived a life close to starvation.
I had a hard time talking to the business owner. Speaking of self-reliance, the first thing that comes out is that 7,80% of the money was paid. And the swear words came out one after another as if woven together. These are defenses such as “the company went bankrupt”, “I have never paid wages in arrears, and I have not been able to give them a small amount of money.” There is no sign of being so proud and sorry. As proof, a copy of the payroll was sent by fax. According to the wage ledger, about 1.3 million won (most business owners show the aesthetics of ‘justice’. Their wages are ‘how much’, not ‘how much’) appeared to be in arrears. But it’s kind of a clumsy payroll table. I was speechless as it was written on A4 paper at the level of a memo.
I decided to go face-to-face to see who was lying. The business owner appeared triumphant. He paid wages consistently, and the amount he had to pay was about 1.3 million won. After a whopping three hours of fighting, it was revealed that the Hussein and his wife’s words were true. In addition to the detailed statement of unpaid wages prepared in advance by the Hussein couple, the testimony of a nearby factory and the head of a daycare center were referenced. In the end, the employer promised to pay the settlement money four times with a memorandum and left. This is the moment when the lesson that lies will be uncovered someday is reaffirmed.
For migrant workers, wages are their survival. It is for the survival of themselves and their families that they emigrate from a distant foreign land, live in struggle, and do their work, shunning all kinds of humiliation and hardship. That is why migration is sometimes risky, and sometimes it endures tough waves. All to dream of a new world. There is no need for a grand slogan or ideology. In a reality where survival itself is threatened, their choice is a life-threatening adventure. It is not a human thing to do as a human being to take wages and exploit labor force for them because of their status restrictions as illegal immigrants.
What the Case
Tells Recently, as a recent example, undocumented migrant workers who are illegally resident are intensively paying the wages of migrant workers in arrears. It is also occurring not in small amounts, but in large amounts. The Ministry of Labor is lukewarm on this issue. Even if you fill out a complaint and file a complaint with the Ministry of Labor, it is only possible to obtain an agreement with 2-3 requests for attendance, which is impossible for a formal investigation. There is no binding and enforcement power. The problem doesn’t end there, even if you attend the Ministry of Labor. The labor inspector only inspects at the tabletop. The field map is in spite of the customary phrases. It only gives a hand to the business owners who do not attend. That’s custom.
Most employers are habitual wage arrears. Paying unpaid wages is like eating three meals a day. Therefore, it goes without saying that they also lack a sense of moral and ethical responsibility for non-payment of wages. There are even cases where a complaint was filed with the Ministry of Labor and the person under investigation was reported to the police as an illegal resident. It is truly a face-to-face. Therefore, migrant workers do not have human rights. They are only working machines. They force themselves to become beasts that do what they tell them to do, do what they give when they give it, work and work again. That is the present state of our society.
Is it just a paycheck issue? The unruly power of the employer, who has the right to escape from life or death, gives chronic stress to migrant workers. The intentional attitude of saying “Give, give,” and not give, creates ‘multiple emotions’ for migrant workers: distrust, anger, and anxiety. Negative emotional state persists.
Not only that, unless Pavlov’s conditional reflexes are being tested, the business owner’s behavior is also a problem, as if he was giving him the wages he was supposed to give him. The king who spreads it is exercised like a dog string. If you only give them enough to eat and live, that’s all you have to do, even if you don’t give them money. There is hidden contempt and contempt for the weak and the poor. This is the shameful reality of our country, which is manifested in unpaid wages.
If universal values need to be communicated
, we can confirm that the old link that our society’s naturalistic nature reveals is none other than the field where migrant workers work. It is the reversal of the realities of low-income capitalism, from not only non-payment of wages, but also assaults, sexual assaults, industrial accidents, and even death in the workplace.
However, shaking the right to live is the number one crime among crimes. To those who eat rice, rice is considered a ritual to eat, but to those who work, rice is power. Without ‘Babhim’, a day’s labor is overloaded with strength. That’s why we’ve been told not to play with rice since ancient times.
However, despite the fact that, despite the fact that migrant workers were subjected to forced labor close to recognition and restraint as a hostage, the fact that, after several months of unpaid wages, as if it were natural and proud, there was no reflection in the eyes of migrant workers is a serious violation of our society’s ethics. means
I don’t think it’s the aftereffects of the development dictatorship with a unilateral approach to compressed growth. Perhaps our society is suffering from the ‘post-traumatic stress symptoms’ of the developmental dictatorship, or whether the ‘repression mechanisms’ are collectively onset 30 years later, there is much doubt.
There is even a closed nationalist protest that “foreign workers are taking away their jobs in Korea, so they should all be expelled”, but when they say, “You get what you give, you only get a few pennies in your own country, and your salary is crushed.” All kinds of non-economic logic and personal threats abound. Mostly, it is the voice of a person with vested interests or power. There are many cases where the high-dap (高踏) of pure-bloodism was combined. Even though they are of the same color, they do not shy away from racial discrimination. Everyone is ashamed of the present.
Reflection is missing from the sacrament of these words. The collective self-interest is concealed. Universal values become obsolete. There are only claims, no obligations. In many cases, the words such as coexistence, cooperation, and coexistence are signifiers floating in the air without obligation. The evil spirit of wages is reincarnated as a legitimate ‘murder of labor rights’ and constantly slips into the lives of migrant workers. In the end, he lives in reality, forgetting his feelings of shame and guilt. It is the spontaneous death of our society.