Muju-gun selected for public seasonal work system pilot competition.

Muju-gun, Jeollabuk-do has been selected as the target local government for the 2022 public seasonal labor pilot project by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and received government support necessary for the entry and stay of foreign seasonal workers.

The public seasonal work system employs foreign seasonal workers and provides support to farms that need short-term labor for less than one month. In Muju-gun, the Muju Agricultural Cooperative Federation will hire and pay foreign workers, while in Muju-gun, it will provide support for work benefits such as airfare, industrial accident insurance premiums, transportation, snacks, management labor costs, and accommodation, etc.

Farmers can pay the fee calculated in advance with Muju-gun and the Nonghyup to the Nonghyup without any burden on employment.

Governor Hwang In-hong of Muju-gun said, “As the selection of the public seasonal work system allows foreigners to use short-term labor during the busy farming season, we expect that the supply of labor for farm households, which has been blocked in the past, will be opened a little bit. He said, “"If the project begins in earnest in April, the accommodation and movement of foreign seasonal workers and farmers are expected to be the basis for non-farm income, so we are also considering a dual effect," he said.”

Muju-gun plans to introduce 100 people through the public seasonal work system, and to this end, it signed a business agreement with Vietnam's Cauwu Province and Nepal's Durcot City, and the Philippines' Silang City in 2019.

According to Muju-gun, there are about 800 farmhouses in the district that require labor in fruit tree crops, and 85 foreign seasonal workers will be supplied, 50 people will be supplied to 2,000 farms with 2,000 open-air vegetables, and 25 foreign seasonal workers will be supplied to 200 or more farms with horticultural facilities.

Farmers said, "It's more difficult to find a man than picking up star in the sky," and "As the coronavirus spreads like a disaster, it's not easy to meet foreign workers who were hired individually, but we’re really looking forward to April."

Reporter Lee Jieun