[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Construction company A paid a total of 3.08 billion KRW over 697 instances, including monthly fees, to 44 tower crane operators at 18 sites from 2019 until the end of last year. Construction company B was found to have been forced to pay 15.47 million KRW monthly in October 2021 at one site by 10 labor unions during the same period. This amounts to about 1 to 2 million KRW per union. Construction company C was coerced by unions from October 2021 to February 2022 to hire union members or, if not, to pay a development fund. Ultimately, in March last year, the company did not hire union members and provided 3 million KRW as a development fund.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 19th that a survey on illegal activities at construction sites was conducted through 12 related private construction sector associations nationwide, revealing that illegal activities occurred at 1,489 sites across the country. A total of 2,070 illegal acts took place at these sites, with damages amounting to 168.6 billion KRW.
The investigation found that a total of 290 companies reported illegal activities. Among them, 133 companies possess evidence such as account records showing payments of improper fees including monthly fees, and 84 companies have already requested investigations by law enforcement agencies.
Furthermore, these illegal activities occurred nationwide at a total of 1,489 sites, with regional damage sites distributed as follows: 681 in the Seoul metropolitan area, 521 in the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions, 79 in the Gwangju and Jeolla regions, 73 in the Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong regions, and 15 in the Gangwon region.
Among the 2,070 illegal acts, demands for monthly fees accounted for 1,215 cases, exceeding half, and cases of coercion to pay union full-time fees totaled 567, indicating that the receipt of improper fees accounted for approximately 86% of all illegal activities. Other cases included 68 instances of forced equipment use, 57 of forced hiring, and 40 of transportation refusal. Among 118 companies that responded to having suffered damages, losses amounting to 168.6 billion KRW occurred over the past three years. The damage per company ranged from as little as 6 million KRW to as much as 5 billion KRW.
Illegal activities caused construction delays at 329 construction sites. Delays ranged from a minimum of 2 days to as much as 120 days. In one actual apartment construction site, four construction labor unions obstructed work by controlling foreign workers' access (for 1 month) and conducted strikes to enforce demands such as allowance payments (for 3 months), resulting in a construction period delay of 4 months.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to set up anonymous reporting boards by association starting next week to receive damage reports online as well.
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