The South Korean government said Tuesday that it will set out administrative guidelines to clamp down on firms exploiting young workers for little or no money.

Employment and Labor Minister Lee Ki-kwon vowed stern actions to root out employers’ intentional, habitual delay in payment and exploitation of young workers during a meeting between the government and the ruling Saenuri Party at the National Assembly.

The guidelines will include a ban on companies making interns work overtime, at weekends and on holidays. The internship period will also be limited to six months, Lee said.

The move came amid criticism that companies offer “passion pay” to young job seekers desperate to find employment and gain work experience to brighten their job prospects. “Passion pay” refers to the practice of companies taking advantage of people’s passion to work as an excuse to pay them very little, sometimes nothing.

Last year for instance, controversy flared when prominent fashion designer Lee Sang-bong was found to have paid trainees 100,000 won ($83), including overtime pay, in monthly wage. Full-time workers earned 1.1 million won per month. The monthly minimum wage was set at 1.16 million at the time.

Such practices have been more common in recent years amid the heightened competition for jobs among youth as companies have downsized on recruitments in the face of faltering economic conditions.

The jobless rate among young people between 15 and 29 years old stood at 9.2 percent last year, much higher than the 3.6 percent unemployment rate for the country as a whole, according to government data.

According to a survey of 5,219 young people aged between 19 and 34 by the Presidential Committee on the Young Generation released last year, about half of young people in South Korea said they have experienced “passion wages.” Seven in 10 took home less than the minimum wage or worked for free, the study showed.

Among those who responded that they had received substandard wages, 57.5 percent said they had done the same kind of work as regular employees for much less pay.

In a separate survey on 1,204 job seekers in their 20s and 30s released last year by a job portal site Alba Heaven, 65.2 percent of the respondents thought they would put up with “passion pay” and poor working conditions during their internship, with the majority considering the difficulties as part of their life experience.

“We will announce guidelines on ‘passion pay’ so that the young can receive what they deserve,” Lee said during the meeting. “We will also impose financial penalties right at the scene through stepped-up monitoring in the coming weeks.”

According to government data, a total of 296,000 employees across the country were not properly paid in due time last year, with the amount of overdue wages hitting a record high of 1.29 trillion won ($1.07 billion) in 2015.

As part of its plan, the ministry will enhance its legal support for workers and consulting services for employees to make sure employees are paid their overdue wages.

In the run-up to this year’s Lunar New Year’s holiday on Feb. 8, the ministry launched intensive monitoring Monday on workplaces to encourage companies to pay employees their due salaries in a timely manner. It mobilized 10 centers across the country to which laborers can report their overdue payment.

Rep. Kim Jung-hoon of the ruling Saenuri Party said the party will make efforts and cooperate with the government to swiftly pass a set of related bills on wage defaulters and “passion pay.”

The labor minister’s comments also came in light of persisting controversy between the government and workers over government-led labor reform measures.

The government has pushed for the market revamp to expand job opportunities for the young and create a virtuous cycle of outgoing and incoming workforce. But the nation’s umbrella union groups have opposed the plan, viewing it as only benefiting businesses by making it easier to sack workers and hire more irregular workers.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)