From Korean lifestyle and industrial safety education to bank account setup and mobile banking — all in one place
Naju city announced Tuesday that it recently held an early-adaptation program for foreign seasonal workers who entered the country in the second half of this year, at the city's Agricultural Technology Center.
The program covered 221 foreign seasonal workers who arrived after July 20. By nationality, 180 were from Laos, 26 from Vietnam and 15 from Cambodia. Instructors fluent in each country's language, affiliated with the Korea Immigration Foundation, led the sessions.
The curriculum was designed to help workers settle into daily life and agricultural work in South Korea, covering topics including social adaptation, industrial safety, protection of seasonal workers' rights, prevention of human rights violations and mandatory insurance enrollment.
Naju city also partnered with Hana Bank to provide on-site financial services to the workers as part of the same program.
Workers who had applied to open bank accounts upon arriving in August and September received their passbooks and account details at the venue. Hana Bank staff visited in person to help workers install the bank's mobile application and complete identity verification.
The arrangement allowed workers to check directly whether their wages from farms had been deposited and to use mobile banking on their own. Farms, in turn, were spared the inconvenience of accompanying workers to a bank branch or separately walking them through financial procedures to confirm payment.
Naju city said it is working to consolidate the administrative steps required from a worker's arrival through farm placement, residency and employment into a single, streamlined process — easing workers' adjustment to the region and reducing the administrative burden on farms.
The city plans to continue strengthening education and administrative support so that foreign seasonal workers can live and work stably in an unfamiliar environment, while building a field-centered support system that allows farms to focus on agricultural operations.
"We are carefully providing the education and administrative services that foreign seasonal workers need from the moment they arrive, so they can live and work safely and stably in our community," Naju Mayor Yun Byeong-tae said. "We will continue to expand our one-stop administrative services in ways that both workers and farms can feel, supporting a stable supply of rural labor and smooth farm operations."
kkm9971@heraldcorp.com
