SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Almost half of call center workers have thought about taking their own lives due to poor labor conditions and extreme emotional labor, a state human rights watchdog survey showed Wednesday. In the survey of 1,996 call center people conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea from August [...]
INCHEON, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — An average of 65 unlicensed Chinese fishing boats have been appearing in waters near the western inter-Korean sea border every day this month ahead of the April-June crab catching season, a sharp rise from about 15 boats on average during the same period last year. According to the Coast [...]
SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new daily COVID-19 cases rose to around 350,000 Tuesday, ending a downturn for five consecutive days, amid the fast spread of the highly transmissible “stealth omicron” subvariant. The country added 347,554 new coronavirus infections, including 41 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 12,350,428, the Korea [...]
SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — As the number of COVID-19 infections continues to climb, some firms are forcing unpaid leave and wage cuts on employees, a pro-labor civic group said. Gabjil 119 received 19 reports between January and March 20 involving unjust treatment at workplaces in dealing with the pandemic. The civic group has also [...]
SEJONG, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Debt held by wage workers in South Korea grew at a much faster pace in 2020 from a year earlier amid the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Bank and non-bank loans extended to paid workers in Asia’s fourth-largest economy averaged 48.6 million won (US$39,800) per person [...]
SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Members of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team met with leaders of a disabled advocacy group organizing daily rush-hour subway protests and promised to look into their demand for mobility rights. The society, welfare and culture subcommittee members held talks with representatives of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) as [...]
SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The value of assets held by non-metropolitan areas households is about 40 percent lower than that of metropolitan area households, a lawmaker said Monday, citing data from Statistics Korea. The aggregate value of assets held by the nation’s households amounted to 10.3 quadrillion won (US$8.21 trillion), according to the [...]
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s new daily COVID-19 cases fell below 200,000 for the first time in 25 days Monday, as the omicron-driven virus peak appears to have passed amid growing concerns over the spread of the even more transmissible “stealth omicron” subvariant. The country added 187,213 new coronavirus infections, including 25 [...]
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Lee Jun-seok, the chief of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), has found himself at the center of controversy with daily attacks on a disability advocacy group over their rush-hour protests causing delays in subway services. Lee has been posting messages critical of the Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination [...]
SEOUL, March 28 (Korea Bizwire) — A private research institute has called for the protection of pedestrians from electric scooters by reducing their maximum speed. A reduction in the maximum speed limit from the current 25 kilometers per hour to 20 km per hour shortened the stopping distance by 26 percent from 7 meters to [...]