Helmets bearing workers' names distributed at fifth campaign event this year
Ansan city, labor groups jointly declare commitment to migrant workers' rights
The Ministry of Employment and Labor held a campaign in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to promote a workplace culture of addressing migrant workers by name and treating them as equal colleagues.
The ministry said Tuesday it co-hosted the "Migrant Worker Labor Respect Campaign" at the Ansan Culture and Arts Center with four labor welfare foundations and the city of Ansan. About 100 people attended, including representatives from companies in Ansan and Siheung and migrant workers themselves.
Participants presented migrant workers with safety helmets bearing their individual names. The gesture was meant to encourage people to address colleagues by name — with the honorific suffixes "nim" or "ssi" — rather than using blunt terms such as "hey" or "you," and to look out for one another's safety on the job.
The event was organized under a memorandum of understanding the ministry and four foundations signed in April: the Public Mutual Solidarity Fund, the Financial Industry Public Interest Foundation, the Office and Finance Ubuntu Foundation, and the Jeon Tae-il Foundation. The campaign has now been held five times, having started in Ulsan in April before moving to Gwangju, Yecheon in North Gyeongsang Province, and Asan in South Chungcheong Province.
Also on Tuesday, the city of Ansan, the ministry's Ansan branch office, the Ansan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' Ansan chapter, and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions' Ansan branch jointly issued the "Ansan Declaration for Respect of Migrant Workers' Human Rights." The declaration pledges to treat migrant workers as neighbors within the local community and to practice a culture of calling one another by name in the workplace.
On Sept. 22, the ministry and the four foundations held an event in Ulsan to improve dining conditions for migrant workers, distributing forks and providing multilingual menus. In November, they plan to hand out winter clothing and cold-weather supplies.
"We will consistently work to spread the small but meaningful practice of calling each other by name and looking out for one another's safety to workplaces across the country," said Son Pil-hun, the ministry's director general for planning and coordination.
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