“Empty Pockets Even During Seollal”... Workers with Unpaid Wages Sigh (CG) [Provided by Yonhap News TV]

For the first time, credit sanctions have been imposed on over 2,000 employers who failed to repay wages advanced by the government to workers.

On the 29th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service announced that credit sanctions would be implemented against 2,057 employers who have long failed to repay the advanced payment funds since August 2024.

The advanced payment system is a program where the government first pays a portion of wages from the Wage Claim Guarantee Fund to workers facing financial difficulties due to unpaid wages and then claims reimbursement from the employers.

The government will provide the Korea Credit Information Service with the unrecovered amounts and personal information of employers who have not repaid the advanced payment funds for over a year and whose outstanding amount exceeds 20 million won.

Under the Credit Information Service's regulations, these individuals will be listed as subjects of credit management for 7 years, facing disadvantages in financial transactions and loan assessments.

The total amount of unpaid reimbursements by the employers subject to credit sanctions amounts to 386.8 billion won.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor explained that among the employers facing credit sanctions, some who were confirmed to own multiple real estate properties and vehicles still failed to repay approximately 900 million won in unpaid wages to the government from 2023 to the present.

For a cash-in-transit support service company headquartered in the Seoul metropolitan area, approximately 2.6 billion won in advanced payments has been disbursed since 2022, with 2.5 billion won remaining unpaid.

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon stated, "Wage theft is a serious crime that threatens the livelihoods of workers and their families," and added, "We will enhance the sustainability of the advanced payment system through these credit sanctions." [Yonhap News]