In 2021, a disabled worker escaped from a salt plot managed by a family that had leased the plot from Taepyung Salt Farm. He claimed that he had worked on the field since 2014 but did not receive pay. Court records indicated that the same family had exploited disabled workers between 2006 and 2014, prompting concerns of persistent issue of force labour within salt farms.

This February 2022 reporting came after an earlier exposé in 2014 on the same topic by South Korean journalists. The 2014 exposé included allegations that a local lawmaker was directly involved in the exploitation of workers in salt farms and that the salt produced in plots with human rights violations were being supplied to large food companies in South Korea.

In August 2022, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre asked Taepyung Salt Farm and two major food companies, CJ CheilJedang and Daesang Corporation to respond to questions from Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL) regarding their policies and measures addressing forced labour issues (questionnaires linked); their responses included.

A new article published in November 2023 included allegations that one of the perpetrators in 2014 continued to supply salt to CJ CheilJedang. It was found that the same employer was cited for violations of the Labor Standards Act and the Minimum Wage Act in 2022. We contacted CJ CheilJedang and their global subsidiaries to request a response to the allegation and questions brought forward by APIL. Response from CJ CheilJedang provided below.