Labor Ministry to tighten oversight of repeat workplace accident firms, extend jobless benefits to young voluntary leavers

The Ministry of Employment and Labor will conduct intensive inspections equivalent to special oversight at companies with repeated serious workplace accidents in the second half of this year, while sharply strengthening enforcement and institutional reforms to stamp out wage theft.

The ministry also plans to launch a new K-Youth Guarantee program, pursue legislation to provide once-in-a-lifetime unemployment benefits to workers under 35 who voluntarily leave jobs, push to legislate a generational retirement age extension, and accelerate the expansion of social safety nets for atypical workers.

The ministry announced the measures Tuesday through its second-half work report, themed "Achieving an irreplaceable Korea through genuine growth with labor." It outlined three priority tasks for the second half: consolidating workplace safety and fair compensation, expanding jobs that benefit both younger and older generations, and strengthening the social safety net to close inequality gaps.

To sustain the downward trend in industrial accidents, the ministry said it would closely monitor 183 companies that have recorded the same type of accident repeatedly over the past decade. Should a serious accident recur at any of those firms, the ministry will immediately launch a high-intensity inspection and oversight process equivalent to a special inspection.

In manufacturing, the ministry will focus enforcement on companies with repeat accidents, while construction inspections will center on preventing falls. A 24-hour response system against heat-related illness and manhole asphyxiation accidents will be operated in cooperation with local governments. The ministry also plans to pursue amendments to the Occupational Safety and Health Act this year to expand workers' rights to stop work and participate in safety decisions.

Measures to eradicate wage theft will also be significantly strengthened. Starting in January, the wage-segregation payment system — previously limited to public construction projects — will be extended to private construction and shipbuilding. The ministry will seek higher sentencing guidelines for employers who withhold wages, continue comprehensive investigations of workplaces with repeated wage-theft complaints, and step up preventive inspections at high-risk sites, including those that misuse all-inclusive wage arrangements.

The ministry will also broaden the regional reach of labor inspections. Following the MOU it signed with Gyeonggi Province last month, it will expand labor inspection cooperation to all 17 metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide and establish a new Labor Inspection and Investigation Training Institute to sharpen inspectors' investigative expertise.

To boost youth employment, the ministry will introduce the K-Youth Guarantee program. It will allow young people making their first attempt to enter the workforce to participate in the national employment support program even without prior work experience, providing tailored support covering career exploration, work experience, vocational training and job placement.

Work-experience programs will be expanded to 20,000 slots in the public sector and 45,000 in the private sector, and the large-company-led K-New Deal Academy will also be scaled up. A new platform tentatively called "Playground" will be created to connect government-supported companies with young job seekers, and the Youth Job Leap Incentive will be expanded as well.

Support for middle-aged and older workers will be strengthened. The obligation to provide reemployment support services will be extended in stages — from companies with 1,000 or more employees now to those with 500 or more in 2027 and 300 or more in 2029. The ministry will also pursue legislation to raise the retirement age in a way that promotes generational solidarity, alongside expanding youth hiring at public institutions to maintain employment balance across generations.

The ministry plans to reform the employment insurance system to support young workers' labor market mobility. It will develop a scheme to provide once-in-a-lifetime unemployment benefits to workers under 35 who voluntarily leave a job after working for a certain period. The ministry aims to amend the Employment Insurance Act this year and finalize the details through labor-management consultations.

Employment services will also be restructured around AI. All 102 public employment centers nationwide will be converted into "My AI Employment Centers," where AI will analyze job seekers' career histories and competencies to deliver personalized job-placement services, while routine administrative tasks such as unemployment benefit payments will be automated. Job seekers who need counseling will receive intensive support from dedicated advisers.

The ministry will also move to expand the social safety net to narrow labor market disparities arising from structural industrial shifts.

It plans to establish a body tentatively called the "K-Labor Welfare Council" to support 8.69 million atypical workers, including those in special-employment categories and platform jobs, and will pursue framework legislation on the rights of working people as well as a statutory presumption-of-employee-status provision. Employment insurance coverage for artists and service providers will be expanded from the current 950,000 to up to 1.6 million people, and the ministry will also work to improve support for industrial accident and national health insurance premiums and ease eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits.

In addition, the ministry will release workplace guidelines this month to reduce labor-management conflicts over corporate investment, operating profit and performance bonuses, and will pursue reforms to fixed-term employment rules and the management of non-regular workers in the public sector. Plans for a roadmap to achieve equal pay for equal work, measures to prevent misuse of all-inclusive wage arrangements, health protections for night-shift workers, and the promotion of fund-type retirement pensions will all be finalized by year's end.

"We will ensure that workplaces where basic standards are upheld take root so that people can feel the change, and in the second half we will focus particularly on building an inclusive social safety net so that all working people — including service providers who have fallen through the cracks — are protected," Kim Young-hoon, the minister of employment and labor, said. "The Ministry of Employment and Labor will lead the way toward growth that serves people, labor that preserves dignity, and a future where no one is left behind."