Park Byeong-seok "Actively Implement Remote Work for Staff"... 'Recommendation' to Lawmakers

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Hyemin Kim and Jinyoung Jeon] On the 24th, National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok recommended that lawmakers "actively implement remote work for their office staff" as a response to the resurgence of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). He decided to implement high-intensity measures such as suspending the use of National Assembly meeting rooms for two weeks and halting the issuance of external visitor passes.

Han Minsu, the National Assembly's chief public relations officer, stated in a briefing that "Starting tomorrow, a letter from the Speaker recommending the strong implementation of remote work for lawmakers' offices and flexible staggered working hours has been sent," and urged, "For lawmakers' offices, except for essential personnel, we earnestly request measures to minimize office density through staggered commuting."

Along with this, the National Assembly will implement measures to minimize external visits and resident personnel for two weeks from the 25th to the 6th of next month. The use of meeting rooms, seminar rooms, and conference rooms in the Members' Office Building and the National Assembly Library will also be suspended. The issuance of temporary press passes for visitors and unregistered journalists will be halted.

Han explained, "The National Assembly is already partially implementing social distancing measures equivalent to level 3, but it is true that there are still blind spots in quarantine as the number of external visitors exceeds an average of 1,000 per day," and added, "Ahead of the regular session, Speaker Park has instructed the preparation and implementation of a higher-level preemptive measure."

Use of the Communication Hall, where press conferences are held, will also restrict the attendance of outsiders except for authorized applicants. The operation of the cafeteria within the building, which has been running on a two-shift system, will be strengthened to a three-shift system. National Assembly staff will expand remote work, flexible work, or staggered commuting hours by department, except for essential personnel.

Previously, Speaker Park limited the number of people in standing committee meeting rooms to no more than 50. For the plenary session hall and the Budget and Accounts Special Committee meeting room, operations will be conducted at a level that meets the minimum quorum requirements, reflecting their characteristics.

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