Paid Holidays for SMEs on Gwangbokjeol and Hangeul Day, Including Policy Fund Support Benefits

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Takes the Lead in Ensuring Rest Rights for Small Business Workers

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] Starting next year, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that apply legally designated public holidays such as March 1st Movement Day, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day, Hangul Day, New Year's Day, Lunar New Year and Chuseok (3 days), Buddha's Birthday, Christmas, Children's Day, Memorial Day, Election Day, temporary holidays, and substitute holidays as paid holidays will receive various benefits including policy fund support.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on the 13th additional support measures for SMEs applying public holidays as paid holidays starting next year.

Following the revision of the Labor Standards Act in March 2018, the application of public holidays to the private sector began this year with companies of 300 or more employees and public institutions, and will be implemented for companies with 30 to 299 employees starting next year. From January 2022, it will be gradually applied to companies with 5 to 29 employees.

To ease the burden on companies with 5 to 299 employees starting next year, the government, including the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, jointly announced the "Support Measures for the Settlement of Public Holiday Application in the Private Sector" on the 24th of last month.

The support measures include employment incentives, preferential treatment in government-supported projects such as smart factory dissemination projects, individual support such as raising the foreign employment quota, expanding participation in voluntary improvement of working conditions support projects, and exemption from regular labor inspections for three years upon participation. If companies with 5 to 29 employees adopt the system early, benefits such as additional points in public procurement, preferential policy funds, extra points for foreign workforce, and discounts on industrial accident insurance premiums will be provided.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has prepared additional support measures that proactively assist SMEs with financing management funds and expanding workforce due to the transition to paid holidays. The support targets are SMEs that complete the transition of public holidays to paid holidays (at least 5 days of paid holidays) before the system is implemented and receive a confirmation certificate from the local labor office.

Looking into the detailed support contents, first, the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency's policy fund support frequency limit has been temporarily relaxed in 2021 from the current 3 times in 5 years to allow additional funding. Also, the Korea Technology Finance Corporation has increased the guarantee ratio from the existing 85% to 90% (an increase of 5 percentage points) for technology guarantees and reduced the guarantee fee by 0.3 percentage points to reduce financing costs and facilitate smoother fund supply.

To support SME workforce, additional points will be given in the evaluation of military service designated companies for the introduction of industrial technical personnel. Along with this, to support SMEs in developing domestic and overseas markets, additional points will be given in contract performance capability evaluations for competitive products among SMEs and when applying for customized overseas market development support projects (Export Voucher) for overseas market development.

Jeong Ki-hwan, Director of Job Policy Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "After the joint announcement of the 'Support Measures for the Settlement of Public Holiday Application in the Private Sector' on the 24th of last month, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has prepared additional support measures to ensure smooth settlement for SMEs. We will continue to promote and support together with related ministries such as the Ministry of Employment and Labor so that SME workers can equally enjoy the rest rights guaranteed by law."

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