8.47 million people, including specially employed workers and platform workers, are in the blind spot of the Labor Standards Act

 

It was revealed that 8.35 million, or 99% of the 8.47 million irregular workers, including specially employed workers, platform workers, and freelancers, work without a business registration certificate. This means that although they are actually workers who should be protected by the Labor Standards Act, they are disguised as self-employed and are in a blind spot of the labor law.

As a result of Kim Joo-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzing data from the National Tax Service on the 25th, it was found that 99% of the 8.47 million people subject to withholding tax on personal service business income in 2022 do not have a business registration certificate. Human service business income is income received by providing labor without employment, and mainly includes income from specially employed workers, platform workers, and freelancers.

This suggests that business owners are disguising workers as self-employed to avoid the application of the Labor Standards Act and operate illegally to reduce the burden of social insurance premiums. This 'fake self-employment' problem is causing worsening working conditions for workers and deepening social inequality.

The current Labor Standards Act does not provide direct punishment provisions for ‘worker misclassification’, which involves disguising workers as self-employed. Accordingly, business owners bear no particular legal responsibility even if they disguise their workers as self-employed.

Ha Eun-seong, a labor attorney at Ending Credit, the name of the people who make the broadcast, said, "The current law is giving the wrong signal to business owners that 'not complying with the law is more profitable than complying with it even if caught later.'" He said, "Improve the system to solve the fundamental problem." urged.

Rep. Kim Joo-young emphasized, "The act of disguising workers as business earners must be clearly defined as illegal and the punishment for this must be strengthened. We must revise the Labor Standards Act to ensure that all workers are protected by the law." did it