Local Government HR Departments Complain About Difficulties Operating Short Working Hours for Fixed-Term Contract Employees

56.7% of Responding Institutions Report Operational Difficulties Due to Short Working Hours... 145 Institutions (72.14%) Support Changing Weekly Working Hours to 15-40 Hours, etc. Response

The National Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union (Chairperson Jeong Seong-hye) announced that this year marks the 10th anniversary since the legal institutionalization of part-time public official recruitment. Excluding 15 institutions without part-time public officials, they surveyed 228 local government institutions nationwide to gather opinions from local government personnel departments regarding difficulties in operating part-time public officials and the proposal to expand the weekly working hours from 15?40 hours.

As a result of investigating difficulties in operating part-time public officials, among the 201 institutions that responded, 114 institutions (56.7%) reported issues related to ‘short working hours,’ and 99 institutions (49.2%) reported ‘difficulty in assigning positions.’

Regarding the proposal to change the weekly working hours of part-time public officials from 15?35 hours to 15?40 hours, a follow-up survey of local government personnel departments was conducted in 2023 following the 2022 survey. Among the 201 institutions that responded, 145 institutions (72.14%) either supported extending the working hours range up to 40 hours per week (125 institutions) or stated they would implement it if the Ministry of the Interior and Safety guidelines were changed (20 institutions). This reflects an 8.14% increase in supportive opinions compared to 2022.

The reasons local government personnel departments submitted ‘supportive’ opinions included that ‘there is no difference in the duties between full-time and part-time public officials, so there is no need for separate personnel management, and it is considered necessary to operate them in an integrated manner in the mid to long term,’ and ‘there is no difference in work promotion between 40 hours and the current hours, and it would improve the efficiency of personnel management.’ It was understood that since part-time public officials perform the same duties as full-time officials on site, there is no resistance to extending working hours up to 40 hours per week.

Additionally, according to a survey conducted by the Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union in July this year targeting 804 union members, 644 members (80.1%) currently work 31?35 hours per week. Among the 623 members who reported working overtime, 362 members (58.1%) work more than 21 hours of overtime per month, indicating that they are already working over 40 hours per week.

Based on the two surveys conducted with local government personnel departments and part-time public officials, it was found that the regular working hours for public officials are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., totaling 40 hours per week. However, the weekly working hours for part-time public officials are limited to a maximum of 35 hours. Despite the existence of part-time public officials who are capable of working up to 40 hours per week, both local government personnel departments and part-time public officials are experiencing difficulties in work due to the limited working hours causing work gaps.

Jeong Seong-hye, Chairperson of the National Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union, stated, “To discuss these difficulties faced by personnel departments and part-time public officials and to propose solutions, we will invite experts, officials from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Ministry of Personnel Management to hold a ‘National Assembly Forum for the Integration of Part-Time Public Officials and Part-Time Converted Public Officials’ on September 11 at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building, Conference Room 1.” She added, “This year marks the 10th anniversary of the system’s introduction, and we hope that this forum will lead to improvements in the system.”

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