"Why Do Only Men Work Overnight?"... Seoul Waterworks Headquarters Also Assigns Female Employees to Night Duty

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Following Seoul City Hall, female employees belonging to the Seoul Metropolitan Waterworks Headquarters will also be assigned to overnight duty shifts alongside male employees.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Waterworks Headquarters on the 22nd, starting from September, female employees at grade 6 and below will be assigned to overnight duty shifts from 6 PM to 9 AM the next day.

Until now, overnight duty shifts at the Waterworks Headquarters were exclusively handled by male employees at grade 6 and below. Female employees were only assigned to daytime shifts on weekends and public holidays.

As a result, the average overnight duty cycle for male employees was about 18 days. This is relatively shorter compared to the 30-day overnight duty cycle of male employees at the Seoul City Hall, where female employees have also been assigned to overnight duty since 2019.

Due to the increased fatigue from overnight duties among male employees, there have been continuous complaints within the Waterworks Headquarters that "female employees should also take overnight shifts."

Additionally, as work absences continued due to compensatory leave after duty shifts, there were ongoing calls for improvements such as adjusting the number of duty personnel.

In response, the Waterworks Headquarters decided to improve duty operations by reviewing days and times with relatively fewer reports and reducing the number of duty personnel from three to two. Furthermore, female employees of the Waterworks Offices under the Waterworks Headquarters and the Seoul Water Research Institute will also begin overnight duties starting in September.

Previously, in April 2018, Seoul City conducted a survey targeting Seoul city and affiliated institution employees, revealing that 63% of respondents supported including female employees in overnight duty shifts, citing reasons such as the increase in female employees and the unnecessary distinction between genders. Based on this, Seoul City officially assigned female employees to overnight duty shifts starting in 2019.

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