Gimhae-si Reforms Duty System to Be Gender-Neutral

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Sang-hyun] Gimhae City in Gyeongnam announced on the 10th that it will reform the duty system to implement day and night duty shifts regardless of gender.

Until now, at the Gimhae main office, men were assigned to night duty while women were assigned to day duty.

However, as the proportion of female public officials increased to 53%, disparities in duty cycles arose, with male employees having shorter duty intervals, and with growing awareness of gender equality among staff, women will now also perform night duty.

To this end, the city established a female night duty room and installed safety devices on the entrance doors along with emergency bells that connect to the security guard waiting room when pressed, to alleviate female employees' anxiety during nighttime rest hours, demonstrating careful attention to safety.

However, to avoid interfering with child-rearing due to duty shifts, pregnant women, those equivalent to severely disabled persons, female public officials raising preschool children, and single-parent family public officials with minor children are excluded from duty assignments.

This integrated duty scheduling is expected to eliminate the previous disparity where duty cycles between male and female employees differed by up to three times, while also enhancing gender sensitivity in the workplace.

Furthermore, by removing gender restrictions, it is anticipated that more efficient responses to duty-related civil complaints will be possible.

A Gimhae City official stated, "After operating for the next three months, we will actively reflect on any shortcomings or areas needing improvement through surveys of duty workers to enhance work efficiency and improve civil complaint services for citizens."

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