[Background]
The "Labor Inspector Duty Execution Act" was enacted to establish the legal basis for labor inspection administration. This new Act requires contractors—such as the State, local governments, and public institutions—that contract out projects of a certain industry, financial scale, and duration to separately classify and pay the costs corresponding to the wages that the subcontractor must pay to its workers on a monthly basis. It also stipulates the duties, authority, and work procedures of labor inspectors. Following this, the "Labor Standards Act" was amended (Act No. 21533, promulgated on April 7, 2026, taking effect on January 1, 2027, etc.) to reorganize provisions related to labor inspectors.
Accordingly, this amendment aims to specify the matters delegated by the Act and those necessary for its enforcement. This includes defining the industries, financial scale, and duration of contract projects subject to the separate monthly payment of wage costs, and adjusting matters related to the duties of labor inspectors in accordance with the newly enacted "Labor Inspector Duty Execution Act."
[Main Points]
A. Criteria for contract projects requiring separate payment of wage costs (Draft Article 24-2)
Construction works falling under the subparagraphs of Article 34, Paragraph 9 of the "Framework Act on the Construction Industry" shall be deemed contract projects requiring the separate payment of wage costs. Furthermore, even if not falling under the aforementioned provision, projects commissioned by the State, local governments, etc.—such as electrical works under the "Electrical Construction Business Act," information and communications works under the "Information and Communications Work Business Act," fire-fighting system works under the "Fire-Fighting System Installation Business Act," and national heritage repair works under the "Act on Cultural Heritage Maintenance, Etc."—are included as contract projects subject to this requirement.
Contract projects carried out at the workplace of a contractor (excluding the project owner/client) for the purpose of building or repairing ships, where the initial contract scale for a single ship is 12 billion KRW or more, shall be deemed contract projects requiring the separate payment of wage costs. The period during which a subcontractor is contracted for a project from only a single contractor, based on the nature of the contract project, shall be recognized as the workplace of the said subcontractor.
B. Reorganization of regulations concerning the duty procedures of labor inspectors (Draft Article 59, Attached Table 1, and Attached Table 7)
As provisions related to duty procedures—such as on-site inspections, issuance of medical examination orders, and receipt of notifications regarding illegal facts by labor inspectors—have been unified under the "Labor Inspector Duty Execution Act," the relevant contents in this decree are being deleted and reorganized. Additionally, because the official Korean terminology for labor inspectors was updated (from Geullo-gamdokgwan to Nodong-gamdokgwan) in accordance with the same Act, corresponding adjustments are made in the "Labor Standards Act."
