한ㆍ중 근로자파견제도에 관한 소고

A Brief Review of the System of Temporary Agency Workers in Korea and China

In the case of Korea, due to the onset of the economic recession since IMF in 1997, there have been attempts to shift away from a traditional working system in which workers work at fixed working hours and get paid, and atypical labor relationships such as short-time workers, temporary workers, and temporary agency workers to be discussed in this study, have been introduced and increased exponentially. Especially, in the case of temporary agency workers, since the scope of job duties available for these workers has been clearly specified in the corresponding act, there has been an attempt to transform the system of temporary agency workers to be illegal and consequently, there has been a growing number of temporary agency workers who cannot be protected under the act. In addition, since the act clearly stipulates the cause and period for the extension of a work service provided by temporary agency workers, it rather makes the status of temporary agency workers worse. Moreover, due to the introduction of a concept similar to temporary agency workers and conflict with other concepts, such as mediation, its boundary has become obscured. In the case of China, ever since China’s reform and opening up in 1987, the government has promoted the system of temporary agency workers to attract foreign investment, to promote re-employment of workers dismissed from state-owned companies, and relocation of rural manpower to cities, and to resolve the employment of college graduates. Still, even though the government has promoted this system, the concepts of temporary agency workers and other labor-related terms have not been clearly defined, and these temporary worker agencies are often assigned with various duties and sometimes the government acts as a temporary worker agency. Due to these various issues, it is not possible to have the corresponding act in effect. Also, even though three basic labor rights are stipulated in the Constitution, they are generally neglected in the field. In addition, there is no government agency to relieve the violation of rights and interests of temporary agency workers. In order to protect temporary agency workers, the expansion of the scope of assigned duties for temporary agency workers, legislation of common used temporary agency workers, and flexibilization of employment period of temporary agency workers would be necessary measures to be taken in Korea. In the case of China, it would be necessary to define ambiguous legal terms, assure three labor rights and interests, and legislate common used temporary agency workers, and establish government agencies for temporary agency workers.