Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education and Education Public Officials Union Reach Collective Agreement

Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Jun-kyung] Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education announced on the 27th that the Education Public Officials Union (National School Irregular Workers' Union Jeonnam Branch, National Public Transport Workers' Union National Education Public Officials Headquarters Jeonnam Branch, National Women's Labor Union Gwangju·Jeonnam Branch) has reached a tentative agreement on the collective bargaining agreement.

After holding the first collective bargaining meeting on November 25, 2019, both sides conducted about 70 negotiation sessions over 1 year and 10 months and recently agreed on a total of 148 clauses.

The tentative collective bargaining agreement focuses on ensuring stable working hours for workers and improving working conditions to address low birth rates.

The collective agreement signed in 2017 lacked provisions to resolve overstaffing, making it difficult to manage education public officials' personnel. However, through this tentative agreement, a basis has been established allowing the Superintendent of Education or the head of each Education Support Office to carry out personnel transfers and exchanges to resolve overstaffing.

The Office of Education and the Education Public Officials Union reached a decisive agreement in this negotiation to reduce parents' childcare burdens by expanding student care hours, increasing working hours for care workers, and extending cooks' working days to provide lunch support even during vacations.

Additionally, they agreed on shortening working hours without wage reduction during the entire pregnancy period for female workers and the period for raising children under five years old, as well as granting three years of paternity leave for men. This agreement is based on Superintendent Jang Seok-ung's proactive decision to lay the foundation for resolving low birth rates and eliminating discrimination between teachers and public officials.

Park Geum-ja, head of the Jeonnam branch, said, "This agreement contains the best working conditions nationwide, and it would have been difficult to achieve without Superintendent Jang Seok-ung's will and determination," adding, "As care hours have been expanded, we will do our best to provide high-quality care services to students."

Superintendent Jang Seok-ung said, "This collective bargaining focused on student education services and worked together to produce results satisfying parents and workers alike," and added, "Since the agreement was hard-won, I hope it will serve as a turning point for establishing a culture of mutual growth between labor and management, with its fruits reflected in the improvement of student education services."

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