The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service(KCOMWEL) is reportedly promoting the subscription of employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance for the employees of about 13,000 leased shops at five major department stores.
The KCOMWEL beforehand sorted out the target shops out of 38,000 leased shops whose information data were collected with the help of five major department stores.
The KCOMWEL began the collection of information data on the leased shops at the Lotte Department Store from January this year, followed by the department stores of Hyundai, Shinsegae, AK and Galleria. The KCOMWEL was able to collect the information data on 38,811 leased shops and analyzed the eligibility of the employees working at the leased shops for the social insurance schemes.
The KCOMWEL identified 13,147 leased shops as the target group to promote the subscription of employment insurance and industrial accident compensation insurance for their employees.
The KCOMWEL is currently promoting the social insurance subscription campaign not only at the major department stores but also at big discount retail marts and convenience shops. The workers hired by these stores are less likely to subscribe to the social insurances due to their precarious forms of employment such as temporary or daily basis.
The KCOMWEL has established the cooperation system with big retail marts and chain stores such as the Korean Association of Chain Stores, big logistics & distribution companies, Korean Association of Convenience Shop Industry, Convenience Shop Network Headquarters, and etc.
A KCOMWEL official said that big retail marts like Lotte Mart, Emart, Homeplus, Hanaro Mart and Eland Retail already expressed their good will to join the KCOMWEL campaign to ease the social insurance blind area for the contingent workers. The information data on the leased shops have been requested by the KCOMWEL.
KCOMWEL President Lee Jae-Gap unveiled a plan that the franchise enterprises will be also included in the cooperation system within this year to promote the subscription of social insurances for the contingent workers in the food and catering industry which is one of the lowest social insurance coverage industries.
He continued to say that the cooperation system with the participation of private sectors will be consistently pursued to challenge the realization of the zero blind area of the social insurances.
reported by Kim Bong-seok
translated by Kim Sung-jin