Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 18) — South Korea has allowed Filipino migrant workers under a government-to-government hiring program to extend their stay and employment for one year amid the ongoing global health crisis, the Department of Labor and Employment said.
In a statement on Sunday, DOLE said Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Justice amended the Act on Employment of Foreign Workers to provide an extension to overseas workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The issuance stated that the stay and employment period of foreign workers (E-9 and H-2) under the Employment Permit System or EPS and whose employment period — 3 years or 4 years and 10 months — expires from April 13 to end-December of 2021, is extended for one year.
The EPS allows Korean employers to legally employ foreign workers to boost the local workforce shortage. It is managed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration as the sending agency with the Human Resource Development Service in Korea as its counterpart.
Labor Attaché Maya Valderrama of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Korea said this move hopes to “resolve the difficulties of workers entering and leaving the country during the pandemic and the manpower shortage of small and medium-sized companies.”
The granted extension also applies to EPS workers who have been given a 50-day visa extension by Korean authorities, provided that the extended period also falls within the mentioned period.
According to DOLE, the South Korean government has started implementing the extension period on April 13.
