The Labor Ministry is considering ways to guarantee that workers receive unpaid wages in the case of corporate failures.
The ministry aims to amend civil laws and use the creditor registration system to raise the priority level of rights for recovering unpaid wages, ministry officials said Wednesday.
The level is lower than those for mortgages and other credits to failed entities.
A study group under the ministry's Labor Standards Bureau proposed in a report released last week that worker groups, such as unions, be registered as creditors when companies go under.
The group also called for the government to revise civil laws so that all unpaid wages can be considered credits. The ministry will map out appropriate measures to protect unpaid wages based on the report, the officials said.
According to the report, some 80 percent of unsuccessful firms liquidate themselves voluntarily while some 15 percent go bankrupt. In both cases, priority for protection of unpaid wages is lower than for other credits, such as mortgages, the report says.