The Institute of Workers' Rights (IWR) was established in 2021 as a labour law research institute by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Legal Centre.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is the most representative confederation of trade unions in the Republic of Korea, which has 16 industry-wide affiliate unions and represents one million union members. The Legal Centre of the KCTU was established in 2002 to legally represent trade unions and workers, and to fight for workers' rights in the field of labour law and human rights. The Legal Centre has carried out over 1,000 lawsuits annually and has defended hundreds of cases of union members who participate in collective action or are penalized by reason of union activity. The Legal Centre is currently composed of over 100 lawyers, Certified Labour Attorneys and staff. Although the KCTU Legal Centre launched the IWR, the Institute is an independent labour law research centre.

The IWR currently has six senior researchers, six researchers and a few guest researchers. Aelim Yun is currently the Acting Director. See http://iwr.or.kr/english/index.php?mid=director. The mission of the IWR is to develop labour law theories and legal policies to best advocate the rights of workers and their organizations.