South Korea union expands to educate foreign language teachers on labor rights

A South Korean labor union representing foreign language teachers is broadening its membership and stepping up free seminars on workplace rights as it pushes for anti-discrimination legislation, The Korea Times reported Wednesday.

The Native Teachers' Branch of the Korean General Labor Union, which expanded beyond English instructors in 2024 to include Chinese and Japanese teachers, says systemic gaps in Korean labor protections leave many foreign educators vulnerable to employer retaliation and visa-related pressure.

The branch, formerly called the Native English Teachers' Branch, changed its name in 2024 to reflect a wider base. "Now that we've grown, we have native teachers of other languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, that face the issues we face," Day, Chair of the Seoul Branch, told The Korea Times. "We changed the name to reflect that diversity and to be more welcoming to those teachers who need assistance and aid."

At the core of the union's work are recurring free seminars on Korean labor law. "We do a lot of education, such as what exactly are your labor rights," Day said. "A lot of people don't know their rights, even if they've been in Korea a while. The labor law is updated regularly, and translations of the law aren't readily available. That is the kind of thing we regularly do."

The branch also coaches members on navigating workplace culture. "The culture around talking to your boss is different," Day said, according to The Korea Times. "Especially for new English teachers, they don't necessarily know the most effective way to go about negotiating. They'll take a direct approach, but in Korea that can be seen as adversarial, so we're helping them be informed and negotiate well for themselves."

Union officials say employer pushback remains a significant obstacle. "Employers get weird about who is in the union. We've seen some discrimination and retaliation. It's definitely something to worry about," Day said. "We're still a small union, so if they fire one union member, there's a dozen more, hundreds more English teachers out there who won't join the union, who won't raise these complaints. We like our schools. We like our students. But we would like to have the protections of full-time workers."

On April 26, roughly 200 immigrant workers gathered at a rally in downtown Seoul organized with allied groups. Austin, Chairperson of the Chungcheong Regional Branch, underscored how deeply rooted many members have become. "A lot of our members have been here for over a decade, and many have built families and put down roots. We're not visitors. We are members of Korean society," Austin said. Austin also pointed to the absence of worker representation in the hagwon sector: "The bosses and hagwon owners are organized and in association. There has been no representation for the workers for over 20 years now. That time has ended."

Foreign nationals in South Korea have held the legal right to join labor unions since a Supreme Court ruling on May 22, 1998, a right further reinforced by Constitutional Court decisions and Article 81 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. The branch works alongside the Migrants' Trade Union, founded in 2005, and nonprofit legal aid organizations. Free seminars are scheduled to continue from May through September 2026 and are open to all visa holders.

At the April 26 rally, Day read a statement addressing the conditions immigrant workers face. "We may be immigrants but we are humans too," Day said. "We will not accept abuse, suffering, trauma and death as the price of employment in Korea."