Korean trainee doctors seek ILO's intervention against government's work order mandate

Korean trainee doctors, including interns and residents, have appealed to the International Labor Organization (ILO) for assistance in addressing the Seoul government's directive to resume operations.

In a news release distributed on Wednesday, the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA) said it has sent a letter to the ILO requesting urgent intervention. The reasoning was that Article 59 Paragraphs 2-3 of the Medical Service Act violated the ILO Convention No. 29, which prohibits forced labor.

Article 59 Paragraph 2 of the Medical Service Act states that the minister of health and welfare may issue an order to open for business if there is a reason to do so, and Article 59 Paragraph 3 states that medical practitioners and medical institution owners cannot reject the order without a valid reason.

The ILO prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor provided involuntarily through Convention No. 29 on Forced or Compulsory Labor. Exceptions are made for extremely grave circumstances that endanger the survival of all or part of the population. The National Assembly ratified the convention in February 2021.

"When the government unilaterally announced policies, including the increase of medical school enrollment quota by 2,000, most medical residents submitted their resignations and left the hospital. However, the government has recklessly issued administrative orders restricting people's basic rights, such as business opening orders, orders prohibiting the acceptance of resignation letters, orders to maintain essential medical care, and orders prohibiting collective action and instigation of collective actions while sending out advance notices of suspension of doctors' licenses and threatening criminal prosecutions, including arrests," KIRA said in the letter.

Park Dan, head of KIRA’s emergency committee, also said, "The government should immediately stop using the state authority to intimidate doctors and force them to work by, for instance, issuing orders to start work. It also must repeal Article 59 of the Medical Service Act, which violates the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and international standards and suppresses the fundamental rights of Korean citizens."

KIRA pointed out that although medical residents are both trainees and workers, they are not covered by the Labor Standards Act, and the government has ignored their poor working conditions.

According to the Labor Standards Act, working hours per week should not exceed 40 hours, excluding breaks. However, according to a 2022 survey on interns and residents, trainee doctors' average weekly working hours was 77.7 hours, with a quarter of respondents saying they work more than 100 hours.

"In 2015, the 'Act to Improve the Training Environment and Status of Medical Residents' passed the National Assembly to limit working hours to 80 hours per week to improve the working environment of trainee doctors exposed to long hours of labor, but even this is not being followed," KIRA said. "We have continuously called for improving the working environment of medical residents, but the government has turned a blind eye."

KIRA said it is working on this intervention request with lawyers Cho Won-ik and Jeon Byeol from the law firm Logos. The two lawyers recently joined the "Amicus Medicus," a defense group comprising "Doctors Thinking About the Future" and lawyer Lee Jae-hee at the law firm Myoungjae Advantage.

As of 11 a.m, Monday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare had sent advance notices of suspension of doctors' licenses to 5,556 of 12,001 trainee doctors who left 100 training hospitals.