Expansion of Various Leaves Including Vacation and Sick Leave... Ulsan Office of Education Signs Collective Agreement with Nationwide School Irregular Workers Solidarity Conference

Ulsan Office of Education.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] On the 10th, the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education signed a collective agreement with the National School Irregular Workers Solidarity Meeting.

The signing ceremony was attended by about 20 officials, including Superintendent of Education No Ok-hee, Lee Yoon-hee, Head of the National Public Transport Union Education Public Officials Headquarters, Choi Soon-im, Chairperson of the National Women’s Labor Union, and Park Mi-hyang, Chairperson of the National School Irregular Workers Union.

The Office of Education and the Solidarity Meeting agreed on the procedures and methods for collective bargaining in June last year, and after starting the 1st main negotiation (opening ceremony) on June 21 of the same year, they conducted a total of 44 continuous negotiations and consultations over about 11 months, leading to the signing of the agreement.

On July 5 last year, a total of 792 negotiation demands were submitted to the Office of Education, and through negotiations, 71 items were finalized. The final collective agreement contains a total of 126 articles and 377 agreed items.

This collective agreement is the first in about 3 years and 3 months since January 2019, and the second since Superintendent No Ok-hee took office.

The main contents of the collective agreement include ▲ guaranteeing 16 working days for cooking positions and 7 working days for non-cooking positions during school vacations ▲ expanding paid holidays by 3 days during Lunar New Year holidays in vacation ▲ extending working hours for care workers from 5 to 8 hours and for cleaners from 6 to 7 hours ▲ expanding pre-retirement leave for retirees up to 20 days ▲ increasing paid sick leave from 25 to 60 days ▲ establishing 5 days of study leave ▲ introducing 10 days of autonomous training for nutritionists and professional counselors working at schools ▲ expanding exempted working hours from 1850 to 2000 hours, among others.

The collective agreement focuses on improving working conditions to ensure maternity protection for school employees, expanding various leaves and sick leaves, and creating a balanced work-life environment. It is seen as laying a significant foundation for establishing a mutually beneficial and cooperative labor-management culture in the future.

Superintendent No Ok-hee said, “Labor and management will strive to broaden mutual understanding and empathy to improve working conditions and to enable more democratic communication and development in school sites.”

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