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| Judges attend a hearing to pronounce a verdict at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
Korea's Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that it is illegal to exempt foreigners from the legally entitled retirement funds of family members who died while working at Korean construction sites. The court said the exemption is unconstitutional and violates the country's conditional principles of equality.
The court decided unanimously that clause 2 of article 14 of the Act on the Employment Improvement of Construction Workers, which excluded bereaved foreign families who were not in Korea at the moment of their kin's death, from receiving retirement payments after the death, is unconstitutional.
The ruling came after a petition was filed by a Vietnamese national who applied for the retirement payments ― to the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association ― after her husband died at a tunnel construction site in Korea in September 2019. She filed a constitutional petition as the association rejected her demand, citing the law.
The court ruled that denying the retirement fund entitlements for bereaved foreign families residing in foreign countries, while providing it to those of Korean nationality or those residing in Korea, is discriminatory and "against the constitutional principles of equality."
According to the court, the payment of mutual aid to bereaved foreign families overseas does not have any impact on the state's finances, as the funds come from the mutual aid that companies have paid to the association for distribution.
The court also found the former law cited by the association to deny payment to be irrational as the law was based on the payment mode used in the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, which differs in nature from mutual aid payments for retirement. While industrial accident compensation is paid annually, mutual aid payments are made as a lump sum.
Since the November 2019 amendment to the Employment Improvement of Construction Workers Act, the current law states that bereaved family members of foreign nationalities abroad have become equally entitled to receive mutual aid money for retirement after a family member's death due to work.
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