Unpaid Wages

[Anchor Lead]

Due to a severe recession in the shipbuilding and shipping sectors, unpaid wages in Busan and Gyeongsangnam-do Province regions have reached an all-time high. Let’s find out more.

[Pkg]

A supply firm stationed at this shipyard to manufacture ship blocks closed down last August amid managerial woes. Its 51 employees not only lost their jobs but have yet to receive wages and severance pay amounting to a total of over 172-thousand dollars.

[Soundbite] Victim of Wage Arrears(Voice modified) : "It's tough in many ways, including with my children, because there is just no liquidity."

52 year old Jeong Gi-yeong worked for 2 weeks at an apartment construction site but hasn't been paid for 2 months. The total amount of overdue wages in the cities of Busan and Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam-do Province last year jumped 28 percent from the previous year to surpass 232 million dollars, a new record. The Employment and Labor Ministry is operating in emergency mode through Thursday in order to have overdue wages paid and prevent wage arrears.

[Soundbite] Kim Mi-ok(Busan Regional Employment & Labor Office) : "There is a system through which the state first pays the affected workers in substitute payments when authorities find the employer unable to make the payment."

Some 48-thousand workers in Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam-do Province are still waiting to be paid. The severe recession in regional mainstay sectors is threatening the very survival of local residents.