Firefighters' Union Demands Improvement of Infectious Disease-Related Paramedic Allowances from the Ministry of Personnel Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The National Fire Safety Public Officials Labor Union (Chairman Hong Suntak) visited the Ministry of Personnel Management on the 17th and announced that, following the passage of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act (draft) at the Cabinet meeting on the 15th, a legal basis has been established to provide allowances and travel expenses to healthcare personnel and healthcare institution workers who assisted in infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and quarantine tasks, and that allowance payments are planned.

However, emergency medical technicians and other paramedics responsible for infectious disease-related duties are not included in this, so they requested the Ministry of Personnel Management’s Performance Pay Division, which oversees regulations on public official allowances, to amend the law to allow payment of allowances to frontline personnel exhausted by the spread of infectious diseases.

The Ministry of Personnel Management responded, "Since allowance adjustments are conducted every April with each administrative agency, we will review the request if the Fire Agency submits an allowance adjustment proposal."

Chairman Hong Suntak of the Fire Labor Union demanded, "Please establish allowance regulations that ensure fairness so that no discrimination occurs among paramedics who sweat blood on the front lines for the safety of the people."

Present at the meeting were Chairman Hong Suntak (Central Chairman), Vice Chairman Hwang Seonwoo (Gyeonggi Chairman), and Secretary-General Park Seokho (Jeonnam Chairman).

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