Gyeonggi Province Develops 'Freelancer Fair Practice Guidelines' for Preventing Unfair Treatment

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Noh-hoon] To improve unfair working conditions for freelancers, Gyeonggi Province has developed the 'Gyeonggi Province-style Freelancer Fair Practice Guidelines' containing precautions when entering into contracts, and plans to utilize them in freelancer fair trade education starting in November.

Freelancers are non-standard workers who are self-employed individuals primarily engaged in content creation, IT industries, and similar sectors.

Although they hold a status similar to employees, they are often not recognized as workers under current labor laws such as the Labor Standards Act, resulting in many cases where they do not receive protection against unfair practices.

The fair practice guidelines include ▲causes and current status of unfair contracts ▲types of unfair contracts ▲precautions when entering into contracts ▲related regulations ▲unfair practice cases, among others.

Specifically, the guidelines explain that if contract amounts are not clearly stated in a contract, corrective orders or surcharges can be imposed under the Subcontracting Act, or if a contractor improperly uses a freelancer's technical materials, prohibition of such misappropriation can be enforced if it violates patent law or the Utility Model Act.

The fair practice guidelines can be viewed by anyone at the Gyeonggi Province Fair Trade Support Center website (gg.go.kr/ubwutcc-main), and will also be distributed to municipal and provincial governments and public institutions.

Based on this, the province plans to develop a 'Freelancer Fair Trade Education' program in November and provide it free of charge through the Fair Trade Support Center website and GSEEK (Gyeonggi Province Lifelong Learning Portal).

The education will focus on ▲various legal education in taxation and labor affairs ▲key contents of the fair practice guidelines ▲damage case examples, aimed at protecting the rights of freelancers as self-employed individuals and strengthening their capacity to respond to unfair practices.

Cho Byung-rae, Director of the Fair Economy Division of Gyeonggi Province, said, "We hope that freelancers who are not protected by the social safety net due to ambiguity in employment types will receive practical assistance through these support policies, including improvements to unfair trading and working conditions."

Meanwhile, according to the province's freelancer survey results from March, 'support for unfair practice consultation' was identified as the top priority for policy support. Accordingly, the province has been operating 'legal consultation and damage counseling support for freelancers' since June.

If freelancers suffer unfair damages during their activities and need assistance, they can receive relief support including legal consultation through lawyers, contract review, and damage case counseling. Inquiries can be made by calling the Fair Trade Support Center (031-8008-5555) or through its website.