Bills would shift employment and industrial accident insurance from an occupation-based enumeration system to a coverage-based approach centered on the nature of work

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Hong-bae [provided by the lawmaker's office]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Hong-bae [provided by the lawmaker's office]

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Hong-bae said Tuesday he had introduced a package of three bills — dubbed the "Social Safety Net Three Laws for Labor Providers" — aimed at correcting a system in which social insurance coverage varies by occupation and at bringing platform workers, special-employment workers and freelancers under the social safety net.

The three bills are amendments to the Employment Insurance Act, the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act and the Wage Claim Guarantee Act.

According to Park, the number of non-traditional workers has grown rapidly with the spread of the platform economy and digital transformation. Government research estimates that non-wage labor providers total about 2.1 million people, including approximately 1.26 million special-employment workers, about 800,000 platform workers and about 660,000 freelancers.

Yet only 850,000 of them are enrolled in employment insurance and about 1.5 million in industrial accident insurance. The gap exists because the current Employment Insurance Act and the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act limit coverage to 17 and 18 designated occupations, respectively, as set by presidential decree.

Critics have long noted that every time a new type of work emerges, the enforcement decree must be revised — meaning workers doing the same job under a different occupational label can be left without protection.

The current Wage Claim Guarantee system compounds the problem: it covers only wage workers under the Labor Standards Act. Artists and labor providers already subject to employment insurance are nonetheless barred from receiving government advance payments or livelihood loans when their pay goes unpaid — a disparity that treats them differently from wage workers despite their identical insurance status.

The three bills are designed to close these gaps. The amendments to the Employment Insurance Act and the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act would replace the current occupation-based enumeration approach with a coverage-based system centered on the actual nature of the work performed. New forms of labor would automatically fall under social insurance without requiring a separate revision to a presidential decree. Only occupations with a strong degree of independence as business operators, or where the need for social insurance coverage is clearly minimal, could be carved out by presidential decree.

The amendment to the Wage Claim Guarantee Act would include artists and labor providers covered under the Employment Insurance Act within the definition of "workers and equivalent persons," allowing them to receive government advance payments and livelihood loans when their pay is withheld.

"We can no longer turn a blind eye to a system that leaves countless labor providers outside the social safety net," Park said. "I will build a social safety net that protects all labor providers — platform workers, special-employment workers and freelancers alike — based on the substance of the work they do, not the name of their occupation."


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