Seongnam City to Introduce Once-a-Month Saturday Off Policy for Sanitation Workers

by Lee YeongKyu

Published 18 Apr.2023 07:58(KST)

Seongnam City Hall

Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province will implement a 'one Saturday off per month' policy starting from the 22nd of this month for sanitation workers employed by cleaning contractors.

This aims to improve the working conditions of sanitation workers who currently work six days a week and to gradually introduce a five-day workweek to guarantee holidays.

The policy targets approximately 520 sanitation workers belonging to 16 cleaning contractor companies in Seongnam City.

The schedule for one Saturday off per month is set for 10 months until February next year.

After that, the transition to a five-day workweek will be gradually promoted.

Seongnam City decided to proceed with this policy in response to sanitation workers' demands for guaranteed holidays.

Previously, in March 2020, the city changed the working hours for sanitation workers collecting household waste from nighttime hours (8 PM to 5 AM the next day) to daytime hours (6 AM to 3 PM).

This was also part of measures to improve the working conditions of sanitation workers.

A city official explained, "Although the 40-hour workweek system was in place, garbage collection was conducted six days a week due to anticipated inconvenience to residents. After raising residents' awareness about guaranteeing holidays for sanitation workers, we will actively promote the introduction of a five-day workweek."