All Public Institutions Failing to Meet Mandatory Employment Quota for Disabled Persons to Be Disclosed... Mandatory Annual Plan Establishment

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On April 20 last year, when spring rain fell, the umbrella of a person with a disability in an electric wheelchair was bent by a gust of wind on the streets of Gwanghwamun, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government has decided to publicly disclose the list of all public institutions that have failed to meet the mandatory employment quota for persons with disabilities. Additionally, it will require these institutions to establish detailed annual recruitment plans. Previously, public institutions that did not create such plans were only penalized with point deductions in management evaluations, but now a new system mandates the creation of these plans.

On the 26th, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that it had prepared the "Measures to Enhance the Effectiveness of the Disability Employment Promotion System" containing these details and recommended improvements to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Education, and others. Each agency has agreed to improve the system by May next year.

First, the scope of public disclosure of the list of administrative and public institutions failing to meet the mandatory employment quota for persons with disabilities will be expanded. Currently, only institutions with an employment rate below 80% of the quota are disclosed, but this will be extended to all public institutions that fall short of the mandatory employment rate. The disclosure criteria will also change from the previous December of the prior year to the monthly average of the prior year to prevent temporary hiring of persons with disabilities at the measurement point.

Furthermore, annual recruitment plans for workers with disabilities will be established and implemented. This is because employing persons with disabilities remains challenging, leading to an increase in employment levy payments by public institutions. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission’s survey, the employment rate of persons with disabilities in the government sector’s non-civil servant area is 5.06%, but only 2.86% in the civil servant area, falling short of targets. The government (non-civil servant) and public institutions’ employment levy payments have steadily increased from 22 billion KRW in 2017, 28 billion KRW in 2018, to 40 billion KRW in 2019. From this year, the previously exempt civil servant sector will also be included, and the total is estimated to rise to around 80 billion KRW for the government and public institution sectors. A representative from the Commission explained, "Annual plan establishment has so far only been reflected in public institution management evaluations, but this time we recommended improvements to specifically require annual plans."

Regarding disabled faculty members, it was found that proper selection of disabled students does not occur even at the university freshman recruitment stage. To become a faculty member, one must graduate from a college of education or teacher training college, making recruitment difficult. Accordingly, the Commission decided to include annual new hiring plans for disabled faculty members in mid- to long-term faculty supply and demand plans and to reflect the ratio of disabled faculty recruitment and support efforts in the competency evaluations of teacher training institutions. This aims to increase the hiring of disabled faculty members starting from admission to colleges of education or teacher training colleges.

Lee Jeonghee, Vice Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "Replacing the fulfillment of mandatory employment of persons with disabilities by public institutions with levy payments contradicts the public’s demand for realizing the social value of public institutions and the purpose of the law." She added, "We hope that this system improvement will encourage public institutions to take greater interest in actively creating jobs and promoting the rights and interests of socially vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities."

According to the Disability Employment Act, which has been in effect since 1990, employers with an average of 50 or more regular employees per month must hire persons with disabilities at a certain ratio. According to the Commission, the mandatory employment rate in the private sector is 3.1%, and 3.4% in the government and public sectors. Also, workplaces with 100 or more regular employees that fail to meet the mandatory employment rate are subject to levy payments.

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