[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service announced on the 26th that it will amend and promulgate the "Act on the Creation and Management of Forest Resources" (hereinafter referred to as the Forest Resources Act) to include the forestry business sector in the scope of social insurance premium reconciliation.
Until now, although forestry projects reflected national health and pension insurance premiums in construction costs, they were not included in the post-settlement projects according to the National Health Insurance Corporation's "Construction Site Health Insurance Practical Guide," resulting in disadvantages.
In the construction sector, social insurance premium post-settlement is a system where construction companies pay social insurance premiums and submit payment receipts to the ordering agency, receive priority payment of the amount within the insurance premium included in the estimated price at the time of progress payment, and then finalize the settlement after the completion of construction.
On the other hand, forestry project operators and workers, unlike the construction sector, had to return the entire insurance premium to the ordering agency or could only partially settle it, and during on-site inspections by the National Health Insurance Corporation, they were identified as workplaces not enrolled in health and pension insurance, resulting in disadvantages such as additional charges and fines.
Accordingly, as part of government innovation and regulatory reform, the Korea Forest Service amended the Forest Resources Act to apply social insurance premium reconciliation equally to all project entities and workers engaged in forestry projects, just like in the construction sector. Through this, the Korea Forest Service expects that 17.6 billion KRW in benefits will be returned annually to project entities and workers.
Han Chang-sul, Director of the Forest Resources Division at the Korea Forest Service, said, "Until now, forestry workplaces were not included in the scope of social insurance premium post-settlement, so the burden of insurance premiums had to be borne by project operators and workers. However, with this amendment, the unreasonable structure will be improved, and working conditions for forestry workers are expected to improve."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
