Yangcheon-gu Provides Treatment Improvement Allowance to 2,188 Care Workers

Dispatching "Human Rights Guardians"
to Protect the Rights of Residents and Workers

Yangcheon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Lee Gi-jae) will provide treatment improvement allowances to 2,188 long-term care institution care workers who professionally support physical and household care for the elderly and others, in order to improve the poor working conditions of care workers and provide stable care services.

Last year, District Mayor Lee Gi-jae poses for a commemorative photo after awarding outstanding workers at the 'Yangcheon-gu Long-term Care Institution Workers' Gathering Event.' Provided by Yangcheon-gu.

As society enters a super-aged era, the demand for long-term care services is rapidly increasing, but care workers endure physical and mental burdens under poor working conditions such as unstable employment, low wages, and emotional labor. While the number of users in the care field is increasing, the number of care workers willing to work is severely insufficient.

According to the Health Insurance Research Institute's report on "Long-term Care Worker Supply and Demand Forecast and Securing Measures," there will be a shortage of 3,762 workers starting this year, and by 2028, three years later, a shortage of 116,734 workers is expected.

Accordingly, the district revised the related ordinance in December last year (“Yangcheon-gu Long-term Care Worker Treatment Improvement and Status Enhancement Ordinance,” Article 6) and secured district funds to provide an annual treatment improvement allowance of 100,000 KRW to long-term care institution care workers starting this year.

The allowance payment targets care workers who worked more than 100 hours in the previous year at long-term care institutions located in Yangcheon-gu, are registered residents of the district or provide services to beneficiaries who are Yangcheon-gu residents. Since February, the district has accepted applications and confirmed payments for 2,188 workers at 164 institutions, excluding those on leave or newly designated.

Meanwhile, to protect the human rights of residents and workers in elderly medical welfare facilities in the region, the district will dispatch “Human Rights Guardians” to 19 elderly care facilities from this month through December. These guardians consist of four human rights-related activists, including care workers, social workers, and counselors, who will visit elderly medical welfare facilities in the region at least once a month until the end of this year, the appointment period, to monitor service processes. During this process, they will interview both residents and workers and submit inspection results to ensure that any pointed-out issues are corrected.

Mayor Lee Gi-jae said, “I hope this allowance payment will contribute to improving the treatment of care workers who are making devoted efforts on the front lines of the care field,” and added, “We will continue to pay close attention and support so that workers can work in better environments.”

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