With apartments and other multi-unit housing now widespread and people's demand for safety rising, the private security industry is growing day by day, and demand for facility security by private guards keeps increasing. Despite this steady demand, however, facility security workers are aging, and most older private security guards are on non-regular contracts in poor conditions. Below, I look at the concept of surveillance and intermittent workers and how the occupations of older workers in this category are classified. I also identify the problems in the human rights situation that older workers in these jobs face, as mentioned in the introduction, and describe ways to improve it.

The concept of surveillance and intermittent workers under Article 63, item 3 of the Labor Standards Act and Article 10(2) and (3) of its Enforcement Rule is as follows. A person engaged in surveillance work mainly performs monitoring duties with relatively little mental or physical fatigue; typical examples are gatekeepers, security guards, goods watchers and police-guards. A person engaged in intermittent work performs work that occurs intermittently with much rest or waiting time; typical examples are dedicated drivers, machine repairers and boiler operators.

To employ surveillance and intermittent workers, an employer must first report to the regional labor office and obtain the approval of the Minister of Employment and Labor. These workers are not covered by the statutory rules on working hours, minimum wage, breaks and holidays.

Note: Under the 2005 amendment to the Minimum Wage Act, surveillance and intermittent workers received 70% of the minimum wage in 2007 and 80% from 2008 to 2011. Full application was scheduled for 2012, but because of fears of mass dismissals the rate was changed to 90% for 2012 through 2014, and 100% has applied since January 1, 2015. The paper's statement that full application was planned for 2012 and then deferred for three years should be read with the 90% stage in mind.