Subcontracting to Be Generally Restricted in South Korea’s Public Sector, With Two-Year Contracts and Job-Transfer Guarantees

Subcontracting will generally be restricted across South Korea’s public sector, under guidelines announced by the Labor Ministry on the 8th. The measure covers central and local government bodies, education offices and public institutions.

The guidelines require contracts for outsourced workers to run for at least two years and include guarantees for employment succession. They apply to contracts arranged through public tenders or private contracting.

Primary contractors will remain allowed, but second-tier subcontracting will be limited. Exceptions may apply where laws or ordinances permit it, where work requires new technology or specialist expertise, or where the primary contractor would face significant difficulty performing temporary or intermittent work directly.

Any exception must pass a prior review and approval process. The primary contractor must convene a suitability review committee with at least five members, at least 40 percent of them external, to examine the need for and appropriateness of subcontracting. The commissioning institution must also approve the arrangement.