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The government recently announced a plan to sanction business owners who routinely do not pay their employees. It decided to strengthen loan screening and restrict the issuance of credit cards.

Reporter Jung Joon-ho weighed whether it could have the effect of reducing actual wage arrears.

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Mr. A, who worked in the kitchen of a bar in Seoul's Gangseo district in March, did

not receive a salary when the payday came back on the 3th of every month.

[Mr. A/Victim of non-payment of wages: When you come in, I'll give it to you next week. So I got it. So I waited until next week and it didn't come in.]

Six employees, including Mr. A, did not receive wages of more than 15 million won.

[Mr. A/Victim of non-payment of wages: I pay rent, utility bills, and mobile phone bills, but because of the pushback, (other) friends say that their creditworthiness has just dropped a little...]

Under the Labor Standards Act, employers who are in arrears of wages must pay imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 6 million won.

The reality is that 1 out of 3 business owners who are fined only pay a fine of about one-third of their back pay.

It was more profitable to get by without pay.

Workers will eventually have to sue themselves.

Due to repeated punishments for cotton bats, wage arrears last year exceeded 3.4 trillion won and the number of affected workers exceeded 3,3.

Habitual arrears have become such an endemic problem that they account for 1% of the total.

Sanctions such as making it difficult to obtain credit and restricting the issuance of credit cards are limited.

Labor says the "anti-involuntary penalty" that applies to non-payment of wages should be abolished, eliminating reluctant agreements to receive at least part of wages, and extending the statute of limitations for wage bonds from what they are now.

[Kim Jong-jin/Director of the Working Citizen Research Institute: In order to reduce the size of wage arrears, I think it is more appropriate to actively examine the administration of the law or criminal penalties, and make them binding.]

We should also expand the application of loan payments to rural migrant workers who cannot be relieved by the government in lieu of back wages.

(Video Interview: Han Il-il, Video Editing: Jeon Min-kyu)