"Employment Ministry Sounds Alarm on 'Childcare'... Urges Passage of Family Care Leave Expansion Bill"

7800 Schools in the Seoul Metropolitan Area Conduct Remote Classes
Urgent Measures Needed to Address Care Gaps... "Efforts for Prompt Passage of Legislation"
Ruling and Opposition Parties Propose 7 Bills Including Expansion of Family Care Leave

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Starting today (the 26th), over 7,800 kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools in the Seoul metropolitan area have suspended in-person classes and switched to remote learning, making childcare measures for working parents an urgent issue. The Ministry of Employment and Labor, facing pressing challenges, announced its intention to work toward the swift passage of legislation expanding 'family care leave' in the National Assembly.

Due to the resurgence of COVID-19, a total of 7,824 kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools, including special schools in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, will implement full remote classes from the 26th until the 11th of next month. Under the COVID-19 social distancing level 2, kindergartens, elementary, and middle schools are allowed to maintain school density at one-third or less (high schools at two-thirds or less), enabling a mix of in-person and remote classes. However, after consultations with education superintendents and health authorities, the Ministry of Education decided to implement full remote learning only in the metropolitan area, similar to level 3 conditions.

Urgent Need to Address Childcare Gaps... Lee Jae-gap: "Comprehensively Reviewing Proposed Bills to Expedite Passage"

As COVID-19 prolongs online and non-face-to-face schooling, concerns over childcare gaps are rising. If both parents have exhausted family care leave or annual leave, or in the case of single-parent workers, continued COVID-19 resurgence is expected to cause significant difficulties in childcare. In response, the Ministry of Employment and Labor hastily announced plans to push for legislation expanding family care leave. Minister Lee Jae-gap stated at the 'Employment and Labor Crisis Response Task Force Meeting' on the 25th, "Given the high utility of family care leave for workers raising children during the COVID-19 situation, we will comprehensively review the contents of various proposed bills and strive to ensure that rational and worker-beneficial legislation is promptly passed through the National Assembly's deliberation process."

Minister Lee Jae-gap of the Ministry of Employment and Labor. / Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Currently, family care leave is unpaid and limited to a maximum of 10 days per year. The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to ensure that bills extending the duration of family care leave or converting it to paid leave are promptly passed through National Assembly review. Several bills addressing the expansion of family care leave usage periods, conversion to paid leave, and the establishment of infectious disease care leave have been proposed. Since June, a total of seven bills (amendments to the Act on Gender Equality in Employment and Work-Family Balance Support) have been submitted across party lines.

Extension of Family Care Leave and Paid Leave Possible... Multiple Bills Proposed

A bill led by Park Kwang-on of the Democratic Party proposes to make family care leave paid and allow its use for up to 30 days in disaster situations. It also includes a provision to impose fines of up to 5 million KRW on employers who deny family care leave requests or fail to provide paid leave. Song Seok-jun of the United Future Party, with the unanimous consent of his party members, proposed a bill allowing family care leave during periods designated by the Minister of Employment and Labor when infectious diseases cause school or daycare closures. Other bills include one by Song Eon-seok granting up to 5 days of paid leave annually to single-parent workers whose children are infected, and another by Kwon Myung-ho allowing workers to use up to 15 days of paid leave annually for childcare, with the government covering 50% of labor costs.

Meanwhile, since March, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has provided emergency family care cost support of up to 500,000 KRW per worker who used family care leave. As of the 20th, a total of 127,782 people applied for family care cost support, and the ministry paid approximately 40.4 billion KRW to 118,606 applicants. On average, each worker received about 341,000 KRW, which corresponds to roughly 7 days of leave per person. The number of daily applications for family care cost support, which was 117 per day until the third week of August, increased to 290 on the 25th due to the COVID-19 resurgence. The ministry extended the program period to allow support for family care leave used until September 30.

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