Gyeonggi Province Launches 'Gyeonggi Freeway,' Online Platform for Freelancers, Starting Official Service on 15th

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province's online platform 'Gyeonggi Freeway (www.gg.go.kr/free)' began official service on the 15th, offering not only job information for freelancers but also personal promotion and legal consultation functions.

Freelancers are self-employed workers and non-standard laborers who primarily work in content, information technology, and related industries.

Gyeonggi Freeway (Free:way) means 'showing the way for freelancers' and is a public service launched for the first time nationwide in Gyeonggi Province.

Gyeonggi Freeway provides various services to domestic freelancers, including freelance job information, legal consultation, video education support, and personal promotion.

Looking at the platform's main features, it first provides job information.

To promote early platform activation, Gyeonggi Province has coordinated with not only the provincial government but also cities and counties and their affiliated public institutions to register diverse job opportunities, including translation, lectures, and performances, even if they are small-scale or one-time projects.

Freelancers can check job opportunities from public institutions posted on the online platform and establish contracts through individual inquiries.

Conversely, freelancers can also register their information on the online platform to promote themselves personally.

Online legal consultation and video education on preventing unfair treatment are also provided.

Freelancers are often not recognized as workers under labor-related laws such as the Labor Standards Act, and therefore frequently do not receive protection against unfair practices.

When freelancers access Gyeonggi Freeway to request legal consultation on unfair treatment such as breach of contract, unclear scope of work, or unilateral contract termination by the client, the Gyeonggi Province Fair Trade Support Center provides online responses and phone consultation.

Previously, the province conducted a survey of 1,246 freelancers in the region from July to September 2020 and identified their grievances, including income instability (79.5%) and difficulty finding jobs (68.1%).

In particular, jobs were often found through irregular channels such as personal connections (66.9%) and individual solicitation (44.7%).

In response, the province began developing an online platform to provide stable job information to freelancers starting in December of last year.

Kim Ji-ye, director of the Fair Trade Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, said, "Through the construction and operation of Gyeonggi Freeway, we believe we can implement 'more opportunities, more equitable opportunities,' a core value of the Minseong 8 administration for freelancers who are socially and economically vulnerable."

Meanwhile, according to data surveyed by Gyeonggi Province, there are 526,000 freelancers in Korea, and among them, approximately 145,000 freelancers, which accounts for 27.6%, are estimated to be active in Gyeonggi Province.

Looking at Gyeonggi Province freelancers by field of activity, there are 45,000 in education, consulting, and legal services; 18,000 in information technology (IT) development services; 18,000 in medical, health, and social welfare services; 15,000 in music, comics, animation, and games; and others.