Gyeonggi Province Seeks Contractor for Research on 'Labor Inspector Cooperation Model'

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 23rd that it is publicly recruiting companies and institutions to conduct 'research project on the introduction and effectiveness of labor inspection authority-sharing cooperation model for local governments.'

This research project aims to establish concrete and practical methods for sharing labor inspection authority between the central and local governments, as there are limitations in improving workplace issues due to the absence of labor inspection authority at the local government level.

The total project cost is 100 million won (100% provincial funding), and the research will be conducted over six months from March to August. It will analyze supplementary measures for the current centralized labor inspection system and propose a cooperation model for sharing labor inspection authority between central and local governments based on this analysis.

Specifically, the project will address ▲current status of labor inspection operations ▲methods of exercising labor inspection authority (subject, type, and method) ▲necessity and successful direction of labor inspection authority sharing ▲comparative analysis of similar systems and cases such as autonomous police system ▲conceptualization of cooperation model for sharing labor inspection authority between central and local governments ▲strategic approaches to expand labor inspection authority sharing for local governments, and more.

Eligible participants for the recruitment are companies and institutions that have the qualifications to participate in bidding conducted by local governments and possess research implementation capabilities.

The recruitment will be held from February 24 to March 8, and the contractor for the research project will be finally selected after evaluation committee review on the 16th of next month.

The province expects that through successful implementation of this research project, it will establish fundamental institutional improvement measures for labor inspection authority sharing by local governments and present a new milestone for constructing comprehensive inspection networks utilizing administrative systems between central-provincial-municipal levels.

Kim Gyu-sik, head of the Labor Bureau, stated, "Gyeonggi Province is closely coordinating with the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee and the Ministry of Employment and Labor regarding the cooperation model from the research contractor recruitment." He added, "We plan to further strengthen consensus with the National Assembly and the Ministry of Employment and Labor so that the cooperation model derived from the research can be reflected in government policy."

During the 7th local government term, Gyeonggi Province has been promoting labor inspection authority sharing by local governments to minimize blind spots in worker rights protection and workplace safety, given the reality that labor inspectors have extensive duties and insufficient numbers, making it difficult to carefully monitor all workplaces.

In particular, Governor Lee Jae-myung emphasized at the '2021 Provincial Government Work Report' held on the 18th, stating "The province is doing well with initiatives such as introducing fair compensation and providing industrial accident insurance support for delivery workers, but the most important thing is to actually secure labor inspection authority."