(1) Reasons for Proposal

With the recent increase in women’s participation in economic activities, there is a growing demand for domestic services in dual-income households. However, Korea’s domestic services market remains an unofficial sector centered on agency-arranged transactions between private individuals. 

Due to this unofficial method of service provision, users are unable to confirm the quality or reliability of services, workers are left unprotected in terms of various terms and conditions of employment, and the domestic services market has not been able to achieve proper growth.

Unlike Korea, many countries including France and Belgium have enacted standard laws and special laws to make the domestic services market an official one and protect domestic workers, which has had such effects as stimulating the market and encouraging women to participate in economic activities.

Accordingly, this enactment prescribes matters concerning the provision of domestic services and the terms and conditions of employment of domestic workers, thereby aiming to improve the quality of domestic services, expand the market, protect the rights and interests of domestic workers, and provide direct and indirect support for women’s participation in the workforce.

(2) Major Provisions

A. Certify domestic service providers (Articles 5 and 7)

1) Allow the Minister of Employment and Labor to certify as domestic service providers those entities which pay and employ domestic workers to provide domestic services and have a means of compensating for any damage arising from their provision of domestic services 

2) Allow the Minister of Employment and Labor to order corrective action to domestic service providers which do not meet certification requirements or fail to make required information public, and to cancel their certification when domestic service providers do not follow such corrective action order or gain certification through falsehood or other illegitimate means.

B. Define the operation of domestic service providers (Article 8)

Require any domestic service provider to disclose the details and fees of domestic services they provide, and to not include in the contract that such domestic service provider makes with the domestic service user anything contrary to working conditions specified in the Labor Standards Act and this Act.

C. Require domestic service contracts (Article 9)

Require any domestic service provider to make a contract in writing with the domestic service user, including types and provided hours of domestic services, break time for domestic workers, and domestic service fees, and notify the details of the contract in advance to domestic workers who provide domestic services under the contract, and mandate the user to comply with the contract and not request any work not defined in the contract.

D. Specify working conditions for domestic workers (Articles 10 and 12)

Require the employer in any domestic service provider to provide a written contract specifying wage, minimum working hours, paid holidays, and annual paid leaves when making such a contract with domestic workers, and provide domestic workers with paid holidays and annual paid leaves equivalent to those under the Labor Standards Act, considering the nature of domestic services whose working days and hours are not clear, but make sure to calculate the specific number of such days based on the number of domestic workers’ actual working hours.

E. Specify working conditions for residential domestic workers (Article 13)

In regards to residential domestic workers, accept working hours specified in a domestic service contract as fulfilled, considering that it is practically difficult to calculate their actual working hours, and make sure to reflect residential space, meals, and continuous break time for residential domestic workers in a contract to provide residential domestic services.

F. Define punishment for violations of working conditions (Article 19)

Punish the employer in any domestic service provider, who does not provide domestic workers with paid holidays and annual paid leaves equivalent to those under the Labor Standards Act, for up to 2 years in prison or up to 20 million won in fines, and the employer in any domestic service provider, who violates obligations to specify working conditions and make a written contract, for up to 5 million won in fines, which makes the level of punishment for violations of working violations as serious as that in the Labor Standards Act.