The cost of low wages at embassy jobs

The cost issue of local recruitment has been raised at every meeting of the heads of the diplomatic missions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the bill failed to pass the National Assembly every time.

KANG TAE-HWA The author is a Washington correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

During a National Assembly audit and inspection of the Korean Embassy in the United States in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 11, Ambassador Cho Hyun-dong said that the embassy is having difficulty hiring as the salary for local employees is lower than the minimum wage in D.C. His intention was to complain about the difficulty in recruiting the necessary workforce to respond to diplomatic situations.

However, as Ambassador Cho made the remark, he said that this information is not included in the report. What he said was practically a confession that the South Korean government is engaging in illegal activities.

The minimum hourly wage in D.C. stipulated by law is $17.5 since July. The minimum annual salary, which is calculated simply under the condition that employees work 40 hours a day for 52 weeks a year, is $36,400. The monthly salary should be at least $3,033 by dividing the annual salary by 12 months. As the embassy is hiring with illegal conditions, holes were found at the mission. One of the six civil petition windows has been closed at the consulate, and the remaining five are managed by two employees who are approaching their retirement ages and remained at the job after being persuaded.

I consulted a local attorney on the situation, who presented me with a ruling from the appeals court. It was a case about a locally hired employee at the Canadian Embassy in the United States. The employee was injured and demanded compensation from the Canadian government according to U.S. laws. In the first trial, the court ruled that there was no need to comply with U.S. laws under the Foreign Sovereignty Immunity Act (FSIA), but the appeals court rejected it and decided that in the employment relationship, U.S. laws applied to the embassies. The attorney said that if a lawsuit is filed for unfair labor practices, it is hard to rule out the possibility of liability with the Korean government due to the president.

There is another problem. A diplomat who wished to remain anonymous said that the embassy handles sensitive information, and if missions are unable to hire high-quality employees due to the budget, it would be hard to prevent someone intentionally trying to access confidential data. In fact, I had once interviewed a diplomat who was posted to a country with ties to North Korea. While in a car, he asked to refrain from talking, because he could not trust the driver who was locally hired due to the budget.

The cost issue of local recruitment has been raised at every meeting of the heads of the diplomatic missions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the bill failed to pass the National Assembly every time. At this year’s inspection, a first-time opposition lawmaker neglected the wage and price levels and said that many employees in the United States hired by public corporations are paid more than 100 million won ($72,448), while the employees hired in India get only 8.76 million won, arguing that the wages of employees in high-priced regions should be cut.