Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association Gwangju Branch, Electronic Card Implementation Promotion Campaign

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The Gwangju branch of the Construction Workers’ Mutual Aid Association (Branch Manager Lee Sang-hyun) will promote a campaign to activate the implementation of the ‘Construction Workers’ Electronic Card’ at 91 construction sites, including the new construction of Gold Class in Bangnim-dong, from the 18th of this month to the 17th of next month.

The ‘Hanaro Electronic Card’ for construction workers is a means by which workers directly record their work details by touching the electronic card to a terminal when entering and exiting construction sites, aimed at preventing omissions in the retirement mutual aid funds of construction workers.

The attendance records recorded by the electronic card are transmitted to the Mutual Aid Association, and workers can also check in real time whether construction employers have underreported their work details.

As of the end of September, among about 11,000 construction projects managed by the Mutual Aid Association in the Honam region (including Jeju), the electronic card system is mandatorily implemented at 72 construction sites in Gwangju and Jeonnam, 26 in Jeonbuk, and 12 in Jeju.

According to current law, for construction projects ordered after November 27 of last year, public construction projects with an expected construction amount of 10 billion KRW or more, and private construction projects with 30 billion KRW or more, are required to mandatorily implement the electronic card system.

As a result, the number of construction projects subject to the electronic card system is expected to steadily increase.

Furthermore, from July next year, the scope of application will expand to public projects of 5 billion KRW or more and private projects of 10 billion KRW or more, and from 2024, it is expected to be mandatorily applied to all projects managed by the Mutual Aid Association.

To receive the construction worker ‘Hanaro Electronic Card,’ one must bring an ID card and a basic safety and health education completion certificate and visit a nearby post office or Hana Bank. If visiting a bank is difficult, non-face-to-face (smartphone) applications are also possible.

Since early this year, the Mutual Aid Association has been promoting various activities to protect the rights and interests of construction workers in the region, including campaigns to activate retirement mutual aid implementation and Hanaro electronic card issuance, operation of a special task force team for large-scale construction sites, fostering local construction technicians and creating new jobs, operating a counseling desk dedicated to retirement mutual aid funds for elderly workers, and providing customized visiting comprehensive counseling services.

Lee Sang-hyun, Branch Manager of Gwangju, said, “We hope that more construction workers can receive various benefits without omission through the operation of the campaign to activate the implementation of the construction workers’ electronic card at construction sites in the region,” and added, “We will spare no support so that local construction companies can faithfully implement the construction workers’ electronic card system in the future.”