POSCO Male Parental Leave Increased from 33 to 115... "Service Years Also Recognized"

Increased Fourfold in Four Years

POSCO announced on the 7th that "the number of male employees who took parental leave last year was 115, nearly four times the 33 in 2019," and "the number of male employees using flexible work arrangements for childcare also increased from 416 to 721 during the same period."

POSCO grants parental leave for 2 years per child, which is one year longer than the legal requirement. The entire parental leave period is recognized as continuous service for promotion purposes to prevent any disadvantages. Upon return, employees are assigned to their preferred departments with consideration of their career.

POSCO stated, "As we continuously improve the conditions for employees to comfortably use parental leave and other benefits, the use of parental leave and flexible work arrangements by male employees has increased."

Kim Hwan, an assistant manager at POSCO who delivered the first naturally born quadruplets in Korea in 2022, was promoted from staff to assistant manager during his 2 years and 4 months of parental leave and was recently assigned to his desired department after comprehensive consideration of his department and childcare conditions.

Yoon Ji-hong, deputy plant manager of the steelmaking department at Gwangyang Steelworks and father of three children, applied for 7 months of parental leave immediately after his second child was born. He said, "Thanks to the support from supervisors and colleagues who believe that fathers should naturally raise their children together, I was able to take leave with peace of mind. After returning, my relationships with family and colleagues have strengthened, and my performance and evaluation at the company have improved."

At the multi-child encouragement meeting held last month at the Gwangyang Steelworks Wire Rod Division, attendees received soccer balls wishing for family happiness and health and took commemorative photos.
[Photo by POSCO]

Last month, executives in the hot rolling division at Gwangyang Steelworks held a gathering to empathize with and encourage father employees with three or more children regarding childcare and work life. Attending employees shared, "The company atmosphere has changed so much that executives and employees, as fathers of families, share childcare experiences and know-how and actively encourage the use of related systems."

This year, POSCO plans to strengthen personalized guidance so employees can use in-house family-friendly childbirth systems according to their life cycles. Current systems will also be improved based on employee feedback to create conditions that allow employees balancing work and childcare to use the systems flexibly.

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