The Part-Time Public Officials Union Welcomes Representative Lee Hae-sik's Introduction of the 'Abolition of Decimal Quota System' Bill as Lead Sponsor

The First Step to Abolishing the Decimal Quota System Introduced in 2016 After 5 Years of Side Effects

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Lee Hae-sik, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Seoul Gangdong-gu Eul), on the 16th, took the lead in proposing a partial amendment to the National Public Service Act to abolish the decimal quota system that recorded part-time public officials' working hours per week in decimal points. The Part-time Public Officials Union (Chairman Jeong Seong-hye) warmly welcomed this.

On April 5, 2016, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety revised Article 24, Paragraph 3 of the General Rules on Organization and Quotas of Administrative Agencies, with the intention of efficiently managing the rigid part-time public official workforce. The revision stated, "The head of an administrative agency may operate part of the public official quota as public officials who work shorter hours than the usual working hours stipulated in Article 26-2 of the National Public Service Act, in accordance with personnel-related laws and regulations (hereinafter referred to as 'part-time public officials' in this paragraph)."

In this case, the quota for part-time public officials is calculated based on the total weekly working hours required for the tasks performed by the part-time public officials, with one quota counted as 40 hours per week. If the total weekly working hours are less than 40 hours, the quota can be expressed in decimal units. Accordingly, the number of people was recorded as decimals such as 0.5 (20 hours) or 0.875 (35 hours) according to weekly working hours, which caused problems such as discrimination in work, personnel, and equipment, or lack of individual support.

Since the weekly working hours for part-time public officials were expanded to 35 hours in 2019, during the National Assembly inspection by the Public Administration and Security Committee, there were demands from lawmakers for various improvements to the system, including issues caused by the decimal quota system and malicious laws allowing appointing authorities to force part-time public officials to work specific hours.

During the 2020 National Assembly inspection by the Public Administration and Security Committee, Lee Hae-sik pointed out the limited appointment period for part-time public officials under the Personnel Innovation Office, which manages the personnel system. The Personnel Innovation Office accepted this and appointed part-time public officials without limiting their working period.

Also, on August 13, 2021, on the Lee Hae-sik TV YouTube channel, he stated, "Although the weekly working hours for part-time public officials have institutionally increased from 20 to 35 hours, the quota is still managed not as 1 but as decimals like 0.5 according to working hours. This causes problems where even if they want to work up to 35 hours, they cannot. There have been requests to improve this system, so I will make a bill to ensure this improvement."

Jeong Seong-hye, head of the Part-time Division of the National Integrated Public Officials Labor Union, said, "Since the sudden introduction of the decimal quota system in 2016, part-time public officials have been subjected to various humiliating remarks such as 'half-person' or 'decimal-five human' in the field. However, if this bill passes the plenary session and is implemented, an environment where they can work as full individuals will be created," expressing her welcome for the bill proposal.

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