National Crisis of Birthrate... Is Gwanak-gu Moving Backwards?

Restrictions on Team Leader Positions for Employees Taking Parental Leave
Employee: "Morale Decline and Fairness Issues"
District Office: "Will Reconsider Before Implementation" Explanation

Amid widespread public opinion that the low birthrate issue is causing a national crisis, Gwanak-gu District in Seoul has set a policy restricting the assignment of positions to employees on parental leave, sparking strong internal opposition as well as public outrage.

On the 9th, KBS reported that Gwanak-gu restricts the assignment of team leader positions for Grade 6 public officials for up to one year proportional to their parental leave period.

Gwanak-gu announced that according to the transfer plan for Grade 6 and below in the first half of 2024, Grade 6 employees working without a position who take leave will be restricted from being assigned team leader positions.

This regulation is set to apply to employees newly taking leave in 2024 as well as those extending their leave after the end of existing leave.

The district office explained that the reason for creating this regulation was concern over lowering the morale of other employees who work diligently and that it was a matter of fairness.

This has caused significant backlash as it is considered a violation of the law to treat employees unfavorably due to parental leave.

An employee of Gwanak-gu Office said, “Birth and childcare issues are of utmost national concern, and President Yoon Suk-yeol is currently instructing the government to prepare special measures to encourage childbirth. It is problematic that a local government is going in a different direction from government policy,” urging the policy to be abolished as soon as possible.

In response, a Gwanak-gu official explained, “Since this has not yet been implemented, we have decided to reconsider it.”

Meanwhile, Gwanak-gu is known as a representative low birthrate area with the highest proportion of people in their 20s and 30s nationwide, yet an extremely low birthrate of around 0.5 children per woman.

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