Ministry of Employment: "Order to Start Resident Doctors' Duties is Justified... Exempt from ILO Convention Application"

On the 11th, as collective actions by doctors, centered around residents, continue, a patient is entering the emergency room at a secondary general hospital in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The government stated that the order to commence work issued to residents is a "legitimate measure and exempt from the application of the ILO convention," in response to residents sending a letter to the International Labour Organization (ILO) claiming that the government's order to commence work violates the 'Forced Labour Convention.'

On the 14th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said, "The suspension of medical services seriously threatens the survival and well-being of the public, and the government's order to commence work is a legitimate measure to guarantee the health and survival of the people." It added, "This corresponds to the exemption criteria from forced labour stipulated in Article 2, Paragraph 2 of ILO Convention No. 29."

The day before, the Korean Intern Resident Association (Daejeonhyeop) argued that the government's order to commence work violates ILO Convention No. 29, the 'Forced or Compulsory Labour Convention.'

Convention No. 29, ratified by Korea in April 2021, defines forced labour in Article 2, Paragraph 1 as "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily."

However, the same Article 2, Paragraph 2 stipulates exemptions from the application of forced labour in cases such as "situations or concerns that threaten the survival or well-being of the whole or part of the population."

The Ministry of Employment and Labor pointed out that interpreting the 'intervention' requested by residents to the ILO as a 'request for comments' aligns with the procedural intent and differs from an official 'complaint.'

The ministry explained, "Intervention is not a formal supervisory procedure by an official supervisory body based on the ILO Charter, etc. When the ILO Secretariat receives an intervention request, it asks the relevant government for its opinion and, without any follow-up measures such as recommendations, conveys the government's opinion to the relevant labor and employer organizations before closing the case."

It added, "Once the government's receipt of Daejeonhyeop's ILO 'request for comments' is confirmed, the government plans to actively explain that its order to commence work was a legitimate measure by jointly reviewing specific facts, Korea's medical situation, and previous ILO cases with related ministries."