Gwangju City Produces and Distributes Guidelines for Protecting the Rights of Emotional Labor Workers in the Public Sector

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 9th that it is producing and distributing the ‘2020 Gwangju City Public Sector Emotional Laborers Rights Protection Guidelines’ to protect the rights of workers suffering from emotional labor in the public sector.

At the end of last year, Gwangju City conducted a ‘Mental Health Diagnosis’ to assess the stress levels and degree of emotional labor among public sector emotional laborers. As a result, the proportion of those in the management group was high, leading to the creation of the guidelines as a follow-up measure.

The guidelines include the roles of protection entities such as Gwangju City, public enterprises, investment and contribution institutions’ heads, and workers, as well as seven basic guidelines for rights protection and detailed customer service manuals for public sector emotional laborers.

The seven basic guidelines for protecting emotional laborers’ rights consist of ▲ spreading a human-centered mutual respect atmosphere befitting a human rights-leading city ▲ granting the right to suspend work and take breaks to minimize conflicts with customers ▲ forming and operating a task force for handling malicious (strong) complaints ▲ preparing customized customer service manuals through communication with organizational members ▲ operating various support programs for emotional laborers ▲ establishing workplace support systems such as counseling windows for emotional laborers’ grievance handling ▲ and continuously managing the progress of emotional laborers’ protection efforts.

This guideline was prepared with advice from the city’s Emotional Laborers Protection Committee, composed of university professors, lawyers, doctors, and experts in counseling psychology, occupational environmental medicine, and human rights, to ensure it operates effectively and substantively in the labor field.

The guidelines have been published as booklets and distributed to the city’s main office and business sites, public corporations and foundations, investment and contribution institutions, and some private consignment institutions. The files have also been posted on the city’s website for anyone to download.

Kim Kyung-ho, the city’s Labor Cooperation Officer, said, “Following last year’s mental health diagnosis for public sector emotional laborers, we prepared the guidelines with expert advice. We hope each institution will strive to implement them as effective manuals in the workplace, and we will take the lead in protecting the rights of emotional laborers in the private sector through future surveys and other measures.”

Meanwhile, about 500 employees in Gwangju’s public sector are engaged in emotional labor tasks, and plans are underway to continuously develop and promote psychological counseling, healing, and experiential programs for them.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.