National Fire Safety Officials Union, Full Government Reimbursement of Illegally Paid Meeting Allowances

Korean Federation of Trade Unions National Fire Safety Officials Union Issues Statement Demanding Full Recovery of Illegally Paid Meeting Allowances and Suspension of Responsible Personnel

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The National Fire Safety Officials Labor Union under the Korean Federation of Public Service and Transportation Workers' Unions (Chairman Hong Suntak, photo) recently pointed out that the hazard allowance for firefighters working hard on the field is 60,000 KRW per month, whereas managers of the Fire Agency receive 600,000 KRW per day per meeting when attending meetings of affiliated organizations. This amount is more than 10 times the hazard allowance for firefighters, which is an unacceptable practice that no one can understand from the public sentiment perspective.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance's 2021 budget and fund operation execution guidelines, it is a principle not to pay allowances to officials who receive travel expenses when the task is not under their jurisdiction. However, it was revealed that these managers received allowances when attending meetings of affiliated organizations such as the Korea Fire Protection Association under the Fire Agency.

During the 2020 audit of the Korea Fire Protection Association by the Fire Agency, improper payments such as family allowances and business promotion expenses were recovered. However, it is devastating to think that Fire Agency managers, who should supervise affiliated organizations, received up to 15.35 million KRW for attending meetings of affiliated organizations, while firefighters fight against fire disasters on the scene.

Although the Fire Agency belatedly announced that it would revise related regulations of affiliated organizations to stop paying allowances for attending meetings, the Firefighter Code of Conduct Article 20, which applies to Fire Agency employees, already sets the maximum honorarium for external lectures at 400,000 KRW. Therefore, the Fire Agency cannot escape responsibility for negligence in management and supervision regarding this incident where illegal allowances were paid.

In response, Hong Suntak, chairman of the Fire Safety Labor Union, issued a statement demanding the following for the honor of 70,000 firefighters nationwide.

▲ Request an external audit by the Prime Minister's Office or other external bodies instead of an internal Fire Agency audit, announce the results to all firefighters, and demand strict punishment

▲ Demand suspension of duties for senior officials who violated the Firefighter Code of Conduct

▲ Demand full recovery of illegally paid allowances

The Korean Federation of Public Service and Transportation Workers' Fire Safety Labor Union pledged to actively monitor the Fire Agency's wrongful practices and strive to prevent corruption together with its members in the future.

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