Gwangju Seo-gu Announces Position on 'National Human Rights Commission Press Release'

"Cannot Recognize Work Experience Not Included in Ministry of Health and Welfare or Gwangju City Guidelines"

Seo-gu District of Gwangju City issued a statement on the 10th regarding the press release distributed by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the 7th.

Seogu District Office building. Provided by Seogu District Office

In the statement, Seo-gu District said, "The issue raised with the Human Rights Commission concerns a request by petitioner A to have their experience in human rights counseling (about 11 years and 7 months) recognized as work experience in the field of social welfare. The Human Rights Commission expressed the opinion that this constituted discriminatory conduct infringing on the right to equality, and recommended that the head of Seo-gu District recognize human rights counseling work at a national institution as social welfare experience." "However, Seo-gu District stated that, in the case of the petitioner, since the entire personnel cost is supported by national and city funds, it cannot arbitrarily recognize work experience in projects or facilities not listed in the Social Welfare Services Act, relevant Ministry of Health and Welfare guidelines, and Gwangju City guidelines."

The district explained, "In this regard, we requested Gwangju City to state (via official letter) whether there are plans to establish separate guidelines for recognizing such experience. However, we received a verbal response that this matter must comply with relevant laws and Ministry of Health and Welfare guidelines, and that there are no plans to establish new separate guidelines."

The district added, "Previously, we requested detailed documents from the Human Rights Commission to verify the petitioner's work experience, but have not received a response, so we have made a repeated request for the relevant information." The district further stated, "If documentary grounds for recognizing the experience are confirmed, we plan to renegotiate with Gwangju City regarding the budget support and related matters."

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