Unpaid overtime [Image created using ChatGPT]
Unpaid overtime [Image created using ChatGPT]

The Ministry of Employment and Labor is launching a sweeping labor inspection targeting lump-sum wage abuse at the Changwon National Industrial Complex in South Gyeongsang Province, a manufacturing hub.

The ministry is extending its lump-sum wage inspections — previously focused on the IT and software sectors — to manufacturing, aiming to stamp out "unpaid labor" practices affecting production workers as well as research and development and office staff.

The ministry said Friday it is conducting the third round of its regional relay inspections on lump-sum wage abuse, targeting the Changwon National Industrial Complex. The latest round follows earlier inspections at the Guro and Gasan Digital Complex in Seoul in May and at Pangyo Techno Valley in Gyeonggi Province in June.

The inspections are a follow-up to the "standing inspection framework for lump-sum wage abuse" announced in May. The ministry has been conducting regional relay inspections centered on workplaces flagged through its anonymous tip-off center and those suspected of violating labor law.

Inspectors will focus on whether employers have withheld overtime, night-shift and holiday pay that workers are legally owed — using lump-sum wage arrangements or fixed overtime allowances as justification — and whether working hours, including overtime, night and holiday hours, are being properly recorded and managed.

The anonymous tip-off center for the Changwon complex has received reports that no overtime pay is provided beyond a fixed monthly allowance covering 48 hours, that workplace culture makes it difficult for employees to log their actual hours, and that the internal system does not allow workers to enter hours exceeding the 52-hour weekly limit.

The ministry plans to designate new inspection targets each month based on tips received through the anonymous center. It will also conduct repeat inspections in areas already covered if reports of lump-sum wage abuse continue.

"Abuse of lump-sum wage arrangements is not a problem confined to any particular industry or occupation," Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon said. "We will eradicate unlawful wage payment practices on manufacturing floors so that all workers receive fair pay for every hour they actually work."


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