Gwangju City, Improvement of Working Conditions for Social Welfare Facility Workers

‘2nd Phase Social Welfare Facility Workers Treatment Improvement Plan’ Fully Implemented from the 7th

Introduction of Childcare, Long-term Service Leave, Welfare Points, and Expansion of Paid Sick Leave

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City is improving the treatment of social welfare facility workers.

Gwangju City announced on the 4th that it has finalized the "2nd Phase Social Welfare Facility Workers Treatment Improvement Plan" as a three-year plan until 2023 and will begin full implementation from the 7th.

The plan mainly expands paid sick leave from the existing 10 days to up to 60 days and improves workers' treatment by introducing child care leave, long-term service leave, welfare points, and more.

The target applies to 617 welfare facilities and about 3,300 workers under the Social Welfare Services Act, with a budget of 7.1 billion KRW to promote 15 projects in 4 areas.

The areas include ▲ compliance with appropriate wages and unification of the wage system (4 projects) ▲ creation of a work environment harmonizing work and rest (3 projects) ▲ strengthening workers' safety and health rights (4 projects) ▲ support for improving workers' job skills and morale (4 projects).

First, to comply with appropriate wages and unify the wage system, Gwangju City will support national subsidy facilities' wages to fully meet the Ministry of Health and Welfare's wage recommendation standards by 2023.

Additionally, welfare points for workers' welfare promotion (150,000 KRW for less than grade 10, 20,000 KRW for grade 10 or above) will be expanded to city-funded facilities in 2022 and national subsidy facilities in 2023. However, treatment and special allowances will be abolished.

Also, as the Ministry of Health and Welfare's wage recommendation standards are integrated into a single wage system between living and usage facilities, Gwangju will not establish a separate Gwangju-type single wage system but will apply and implement the Ministry's wage recommendation standards as the Gwangju-type single wage.

To create a work environment harmonizing work and rest, a child care leave system (2 days per year; 3 days for disabled and single-parent workers; 1 additional day for each child beyond three) and a long-term service leave system (5 to 10 days for workers with over 10 years of service) will be newly introduced.

To support the gaps caused by workers' leave, substitute personnel support will also be expanded.

Previously, support was limited to social workers and cooks, but it will be expanded to all job types in facilities, including kitchen assistants, nurses, and physical therapists, and support will be extended from weekday daytime shifts to weekday nighttime and weekend daytime shifts.

In this regard, Gwangju City plans to recruit substitute personnel applicants by the 10th, conduct interviews and tests, and deploy them to work starting July 1.

To guarantee workers' safety and health rights, paid sick leave will be expanded from 10 days to 60 days starting this year, and from 2022, support for subscribing to accident insurance (10,000 KRW) for workers' safety will be provided.

Considering the high job stress due to emotional labor inherent in social welfare work, a "Survey on Emotional Labor of Welfare Facility Workers" will be conducted this year to prepare prevention and protection measures, and manuals and protection plans will be developed by 2023.

To enhance workers' job skills, support will be provided for capacity-building education, legal, labor, and accounting consulting by facility type, awards for outstanding workers, and overseas study tours. From 2022, 50% of social workers' continuing education fees will be supported to improve the quality of welfare services.

Previously, Gwangju City established the 1st phase treatment improvement plan under the "Ordinance on Treatment Improvement for Social Workers, etc." and invested 22.3 billion KRW from 2018 to 2020 to promote 14 projects in 4 areas.

Through this, the wage level of facility workers, which was 80.5% of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's wage recommendation standard in 2018, improved significantly to 100.8% for city-funded facilities and 95.6% for national subsidy facilities as of last year, greatly improving the poor treatment in the welfare field.

Gwangju City is conducting a research project on the "Gwangju City Welfare Demand and Supply Total Volume Survey" to secure basic data to ensure transparent and rational operation of subsidies under the 2nd phase treatment improvement plan, and based on the results, detailed standards such as appropriate facility numbers relative to demand and subsidy payment criteria will be prepared.

Park Hyang, Director of Gwangju City Welfare and Health Bureau, said, "To improve the quality of welfare services, stable working conditions where service workers can feel pride in their work must be established," and added, "We expect qualitative improvement of welfare services through the 2nd phase treatment improvement plan."

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