COVID-19 Quarantine Officials to Receive Emergency Duty Allowance

Cabinet Meeting Approves 'Amendment to Civil Servant Allowance Regulations'... Infectious Disease Civil Servants to Receive Overtime Allowance Based on Actual Work Hours

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] A path has opened for quarantine officials working at COVID-19 vaccination centers to receive emergency duty allowances. Additionally, a plan has been established to allow infectious disease response officials to receive allowances corresponding to their overtime hours.

The Ministry of Personnel Management announced on the 23rd that "support for public officials working on prolonged COVID-19 quarantine tasks will be strengthened." At the Cabinet meeting that day, the 'Amendment to the Regulations on Public Officials' Allowances, etc.' was approved.

According to the amendment, the basis for paying emergency duty allowances to disaster site workers other than those at the Central Disease Control Headquarters will be explicitly stated. Currently, emergency duty allowances are paid to national public officials working at the Central Disease Control Headquarters and similar institutions.

On the morning of the 17th, vaccination candidates are receiving vaccines at a local vaccination center mock drill held at the indoor tennis court in Seobuk-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam./Photo by Joint Press Corps

The Ministry of Personnel Management explained, "This will be expanded to allow national public officials performing infectious disease response duties at residential treatment centers or vaccination centers to receive the allowance, and the ceiling amount will also be increased." Public officials working at COVID-19 residential treatment centers and vaccination centers will also receive emergency duty allowances. Furthermore, the ceiling for emergency duty allowances will be raised from 50,000 KRW to 65,000 KRW per month.

In addition, medical personnel at national hospitals treating COVID-19 confirmed patients will be eligible to receive the Level 1 Infectious Disease Medical Duty Allowance. Besides medical and nursing staff, public officials holding relevant qualifications who perform medical duties will receive 50,000 KRW per month.

Regarding overtime work unavoidably incurred in response to national disasters such as infectious diseases, the overtime allowance ceiling system will be improved to ensure compensation according to actual hours worked.

Currently, the overtime allowance ceiling limit is lifted only when a special disaster area is declared. The criteria will be relaxed to remove the ceiling limit for national disasters such as COVID-19. Quarantine officials will be able to receive allowances for the actual overtime hours worked.

Hwang Seo-jong, Director of the Ministry of Personnel Management, stated, "As the vaccination campaign intensifies and the quarantine situation reaches a critical turning point, we aim to support COVID-19 response officials who have been working for over a year so that they can continue to do their best without fatigue."

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