3 out of 10 Office Workers Work Despite Having COVID... 4.8% Even Commute to Work

'Jikjang Gapjil 119' COVID-19 Labor Conditions Survey Results
29.5% Continue Remote Work After Diagnosis
Nearly Half of Non-Regular Workers Change Jobs, Pay ↓

Three out of ten office workers continued to work even after testing positive for COVID-19. The survey found that the negative impacts such as job changes and income reduction due to COVID-19 were more concentrated among non-regular workers than regular employees.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jeong-wan] Three out of ten office workers continued to work even during their quarantine period after testing positive for COVID-19. It was also found that non-regular workers suffered more from job changes and income reductions compared to regular workers since the spread of COVID-19.

On the 28th, the civic group Workplace Bullying 119, with support from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, published a policy report titled "Regular Workers Went to Work Even When Sick, Non-Regular Workers Became Poor Because They Were Sick," which included these survey results. The survey was conducted from June 10 to 16 by the public opinion research firm Embrain Public, targeting 1,000 office workers. The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

According to the survey, a significant number of office workers reported working even during their quarantine period after testing positive for COVID-19. While 65.7% of respondents said they did not work after testing positive, 29.5% said they worked remotely after confirmation. The percentage of those who went to the workplace and worked during the quarantine period was 4.8%.

Those who worked after testing positive cited reasons such as △"No one else to take over" (56.2%) △"Did not want to cause trouble for colleagues" (29.8%) △"Concerned about workload upon return" (21.5%). Other responses included "Income would decrease if work stopped" and "Worried about personnel disadvantages."

Damage such as job changes and income reductions due to COVID-19 was found to be more concentrated among non-regular workers than regular workers.

Since January 2020, 48.0% of non-regular workers experienced job changes, which is three times higher than the 16.2% of regular workers. The percentage of those who changed jobs two or more times was about five times higher for non-regular workers (16.6%) compared to regular workers (3.6%).

Cases where salary decreased after changing jobs were also higher among non-regular workers (49.5%) than regular workers (35.1%). Additionally, 71.1% of regular workers who changed jobs moved within the same industry, whereas only 48.4% of non-regular workers reported working in the same industry.

Workplace Bullying 119 emphasized, "Non-regular workers have been pushed into worsened working conditions over the past two years, risking not only infection but also poverty," and stressed that "support policies without blind spots are urgently needed."

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