Ulsan Metropolitan City announced Thursday that three of its proposals were selected in the Ministry of Employment and Labor's labor policy competition. The city plans to invest a total of 172 million won in project funding this year to establish a comprehensive protection system covering foreign workers, vulnerable laborers, and local industrial sites.
The selected projects span three areas: support for foreign workers' settlement in the region, education and legal consultation support for vulnerable workers, and support for labor-management-government cooperation in the region. The initiatives focus on improving accessibility to support services and providing practical remedies for workers' rights.
The "Foreign Worker Regional Settlement Support Project" will provide daily living and labor consultations as well as Korean language education in partnership with the Ulsan Foreign Worker Support Center opening at Terrace Park in Dong-gu. To provide practical assistance to on-site workers who have difficulty taking time off on weekdays, the center will offer services on weekends at least one day per week.
The "Vulnerable Worker Education and Legal Consultation Support Project" newly introduces evening consultations (6 p.m. to 8 p.m.) conducted directly by certified labor attorneys. The program lowers the barrier to consultation for those with time constraints while actively addressing blind spots in labor protection by providing close support including case representation for filing complaints and relief applications.
The "Regional Labor-Management-Government Cooperation Support Project" will establish an Ulsan-style win-win model in line with the restructuring of the petrochemical industry. The initiative will strengthen workplace safety through the "U-Keeper" system, a field-based program that leverages the expertise of retired local manufacturing workers to help small businesses with safety management.
"Securing this national funding has given us the momentum to actively pursue labor policies tailored to our region's characteristics," an Ulsan city official said. "We will build a thorough support system that all workers can tangibly feel."