South Korea has recently liberalised Departure Guarantee Insurance claim system of EPS (Employment Permit System) helping foreign workers including Bangladeshis to receive retirement benefits more conveniently.
If an EPS worker works in a company in South Korea for minimum one year, he or she is eligible to get retirement allowance equivalent to one month's average salary from the employer, the EPS centre said in a statement.
Employers pay insurance premium every month to an insurance company for workers who get the accumulated money after termination of labour contract known as Departure Guarantee Insurance.
Earlier, workers used to receive the insurance money through their local bank account in Korea. After amendment of the concerned law on July 29 of 2014, workers now can receive the money in a convenient way.
After amendment of the law, if a worker becomes eligible for the insurance money, he or she can choose one of the four options.
They can either remit the money to their own bank account in home country or to family members or third person's bank account in home country through exclusive foreign remittance account in a Korean bank. They can also receive the money without any bank account by presenting a secret code number at the designated bank in their home countries. The last option is to visit a bank located in the South Korean airport on departure day and submit 'payment order' to receive the insurance money in cash.
Moreover, if any one fails to claim the money before departure, s/he can claim it after repatriation by visiting EPS Centre. The amended law ensures money transfer within 14 days of receipt of documents by the Human Resources Department (HRD) in South Korea.
Workers can claim the balance amount (if any) between insurance money and retirement allowance from their employers before leaving the workplace.
"I hope all Bangladeshi EPS workers will claim their insurance money which is paid as retirement allowance through diversified and convenient way facilitated by the recent law amendment," Lee Min Hwa, Director, HRD Korea EPS Centre in Bangladesh, told the FE.
Bangladesh signed the EPS agreement with South Korea in 2007 and started sending workers from 2008 through the government-to-government channel. Besides, 15 more countries have also signed the same agreement with Korea.
According to the data available with the EPS Centre in Dhaka, around 10,000 workers went to South Korea under the EPS system since 2008.
South Korea recruits foreign workers through the EPS system, which had won an award from the United Nations in 2011 for its transparency and efficiency in hiring foreign workers.
A worker can stay in Korea for a maximum of four years and 10 months at a time.
According to the EPS system, if the workers work in the same company, they can go back again to Korea for the same period after three months' stay in Bangladesh.
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