"Accompanying Leave" Allows 6 Years for Public Officials, 1 Year for Public-Service Workers... Human Rights Commission Finds Discrimination

NHRCK Recommends Rule Revision to Superintendent
"Accompanying Leave Is a System to Guarantee the Right to Family Unity"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has ruled that the "accompanying leave" system, which allows up to 6 years for public officials but only up to 1 year for public-service workers, constitutes discrimination based on employment type. The Commission recommended that a certain metropolitan/provincial office of education, which is currently operating this system, revise the relevant regulations.

The Commission’s Committee for Remedy of Discrimination announced on the 5th that it had determined that limiting the period of accompanying leave for education public-service workers to 1 year by a certain metropolitan/provincial office of education constitutes discrimination without reasonable grounds on the basis of social status. Accompanying leave is a system that can be used by public officials who need to accompany their spouses so they can live together when the spouse is working or undergoing training abroad. On December 18 last year, the Commission recommended that the superintendent of the relevant metropolitan/provincial office of education revise the work rules for education public-service workers.

National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Jung-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News

This petition was filed by a public-service worker affiliated with the office of education in question. The petitioner argued that it is unfair that education public officials can use accompanying leave for up to 6 years and local public officials for up to 5 years, whereas public-service workers are granted only 1 year. In response, the metropolitan/provincial office of education has claimed that it is legitimate to set different leave periods because the two groups are subject to different laws, have different legal statuses, and are governed by different service systems.

The Commission reached a different conclusion. It stated that "leave and vacation systems are universal rights that all workers should be able to enjoy equally," and judged that "from this perspective, it is difficult to regard education public officials and education public-service workers as fundamentally different groups." The Commission found that the mere fact that their status systems differ does not provide sufficient reasonable grounds for granting different levels of leave rights that are directly connected to family life.

The Commission also interpreted accompanying leave not as a welfare-based system, but as a mechanism to guarantee fundamental rights. It stated that "the accompanying leave system is a制度 that substantively guarantees the unity of workers and their families in order to realize the freedom of marriage and family life guaranteed by Article 36(1) of the Constitution," adding that "it is not a mere benefit in terms of working conditions, but an important制度 that the state and public institutions must implement."

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