Seoul City Establishes 'Five Major Improvement Measures for Protecting Childcare Staff Rights'

Seoul City announced on the 14th that it has newly established the 'Five Major Improvement Measures for the Protection of Childcare Staff Rights' to practically protect the rights and interests of childcare workers by reflecting the vivid voices from childcare sites such as daycare center teachers.

On the same day, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon attended the '2023 Seoul Childcare Workers Festival' held at Yonsei University Auditorium, introduced the 'Five Major Improvement Measures for the Protection of Childcare Staff Rights,' and emphasized the creation of a "workplace where childcare workers are respected and can work happily."

The core of the 'Five Major Improvement Measures for the Protection of Childcare Staff Rights' is to establish systems and institutions to prevent rights violations and protect childcare activities, and to provide legal and psychological support when rights violations occur. After preparing related systems, these measures will be applied to all daycare centers in Seoul starting from the new semester in March next year.

□ First, to prevent rights violations, a counseling and complaint response system will be established. Currently, there is no consistent standard for counseling and response, and there are cases where childcare teachers are exposed to indiscriminate demands such as being contacted on their personal numbers outside working hours for counseling requests. In the future, if in-person or phone counseling is needed, a reservation must be made at least one day in advance; childcare teachers’ personal phone numbers will be kept confidential; childcare staff can refuse counseling outside working hours or job scope; and counseling can be immediately stopped if verbal abuse or threats occur.

To apply this counseling and complaint response system to actual daycare centers, support will be provided for each daycare center to establish 'Childcare Staff Rights Protection Rules.' To this end, a 'standard rule draft' will be prepared and distributed to daycare centers, specifying the counseling and complaint response system, responsibilities of the three childcare stakeholders (teachers, directors, parents), types of childcare activity violations (excessive demands, threats, insults, etc.), and procedures for rights protection response.

In addition to institutionalizing the protection of childcare staff rights, a 'Daycare Center Usage Guide for Parents' will be created to prevent unnecessary requests from parents who may not be fully aware.

Along with this, to respond to actual rights violation situations, support will be provided for group criminal insurance enrollment operated by the Daycare Center Safety Mutual Aid Association for all daycare centers, covering criminal defense costs such as lawyer fees.

Finally, reflecting voices from the childcare field, a 'Visiting Psychological Counseling Bus' will be introduced to prevent stress among childcare staff and take care of their mental health.

Mayor Oh said, “We have prepared the 'Five Major Improvement Measures for the Protection of Childcare Staff Rights' by incorporating voices from the childcare field to create an environment where childcare staff can focus on childcare work free from parents’ complaints,” and added, “I ask all childcare workers to be strong partners on the path to making Seoul a 'special city for childcare' where raising children is easy and childcare workers work happily.”

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