"Weekly Work Cap for Time-Selective Civil Servants Should Be Raised to 40 Hours," Park Jeonghyeon Says at Parliamentary Audit

Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Hojung: "I will instruct them to look into it"

Calls were made during a parliamentary audit to raise the weekly working-hour cap for local government officials hired on a time-selective basis from 35 to 40 hours. In response, Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Hojung said, "I will instruct them to review it."

Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Hojung (left) answers a question from Rep. Park Junghyun of the Democratic Party of Korea during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee on the 6th. Provided by the National Time-Selective Public Officials Labor Union.

The National Time-Selective Public Officials Labor Union, affiliated with the Federation of Public Officials' Trade Unions under the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and led by Jeong Seonghye, said Wednesday, October 7, that it welcomed the call for such an improvement to the system by Rep. Park Junghyun of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents Daedeok-gu, Daejeon. Park made the call during the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee's audit of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Tuesday, October 6.

Figures presented by Park during the hearing show that, of approximately 2,000 local government officials hired on a time-selective basis, 1,786 work 35 hours a week. About 90% of them work overtime, averaging 33 hours of overtime per month. A simple weekly conversion puts their actual working hours at around 42 hours.

Park pointed to a system that caps working hours at 35 per week and treats any additional work as overtime, saying, "They are actually working, so shouldn't we acknowledge that?" He also noted that many of these skilled employees have built up more than five years of experience since the system was introduced in 2014, with some having around 10 years. He cited a survey by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of 224 local governments, in which 64.3% supported expanding working hours.

Park clarified that the proposal was not to uniformly change all time-selective public officials to a 40-hour workweek. "The point is to let those who want to work up to 40 hours do so," he said.

The union argues that the current system disadvantages workers in both pay and recognition of career experience. For work beyond 35 hours a week, they receive overtime pay at an hourly rate lower than their regular working-hour pay. In calculating the minimum period of service required for promotion, full-time public officials receive credit for 12 months of work per year, while those working 35 hours a week receive credit for only 10.5 months.

"At work sites, employees are assigned and perform full-time duties of around 40 hours a week, yet the system's 35-hour weekly cap makes it difficult because the remaining hours have to be treated as overtime," said Jeong Seonghye, chair of the Time-Selective Public Officials Labor Union. "If the system is improved so that those who want to work 40 hours a week can choose to do so, they will receive fair pay commensurate with the hours they actually work, and their work experience will be fully recognized."

The union urged the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to present specific measures and a timeline for implementation, so that the minister's response does not end with a review.

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