“ILO says Korea’s new foreign nanny program ‘contrary’ to its equality rules”, April 20 2025

Korea’s new foreign nanny program launched last month for residents in Seoul is not aligned with the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) equality principles, its representative said.

In a recent response to inquiries from The Korea Times about the program — through which holders of certain visas can gain employment here as domestic workers for less than the minimum wage — the ILO official said it would be in violation of multiple conventions that guarantee the right to equal treatment.

This comes after the announcement by the Ministry of Justice and the Seoul Metropolitan Government that holders of one of four visas ― D-2, D-10-1, F-3 and F-1-5 ― can apply for permission via the outsourcing service firm EasyTask to work as domestic workers or babysitters.

For those using the service, it would be a more affordable version of a similar government-run project through which parents living in the city could hire Filipino caregivers. However, unlike that program, workers participating in the new scheme will not be subject to the Labor Standards Act, and thus are not entitled to the national minimum wage, as they would work under private contracts, city officials said.

…Given that the law applies to citizens and noncitizens alike, it is deemed to be discriminatory against all domestic workers regardless of their nationality status, according to the ILO.

“Therefore the ‘foreign nanny’ programme … would be contrary to the equal remuneration guarantees contained in our instruments on both migrant and domestic work,” the ILO said.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre approached EasyTask to respond to the concerns raised in this report, but did not receive a response.