Government-Funded Research Institute Researchers Work Day and Night... Working Hours Unknown for One in Three [2026 National Assembly Audit]

13,472 instances of holiday work and 4,464 instances of night work over three years
39 researchers at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute worked over 300 hours of overtime in a year... Gaps in overwork monitoring systems

Holiday work by researchers at government-funded research institutes has exceeded 13,000 instances over the past three years. Some researchers worked more than 300 hours of overtime in a year, while actual working hours could not even be calculated for about 31% of the research staff entries tabulated by working-hours system. Concerns are growing that flexible work arrangements, intended to ensure researchers’ autonomy, could become a blind spot that fails to identify long working hours and the risk of overwork.

A researcher works inside a radiation-shielded facility (hot cell) at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. In the past three years, research staff at government-funded research institutes have worked on holidays more than 13,000 times, raising concerns about long working hours and the management of researchers' right to rest. This file photo is for illustrative purposes and is not directly related to the contents of the article. Photo provided by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

According to data submitted by the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) at the request of Kim Namguk of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, researchers at 23 government-funded research institutes recorded a total of 13,472 instances of holiday work, amounting to 79,898 hours, from 2023 through 2025. During the same period, they recorded 4,464 instances of night work, totaling 12,843 hours. These figures combine work records actually calculated and submitted by each institute and exclude the working hours of some researchers, including those covered by the discretionary work-hour system.

Holiday work increased from 4,102 instances in 2023 to 4,787 in 2024, before edging down to 4,583 in 2025. By contrast, the number of researchers who worked on holidays at least four times in at least one month of the year rose 58.8%, from 80 to 127 over the same period. Observers say attention should be paid not only to the total number of holiday-work instances but also to the repeated concentration of work among particular researchers.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) had the most holiday work among the institutes in 2025, with 1,626 instances, followed by the Korea Institute of Toxicology (813), the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (475) and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (431). ETRI also recorded 1,031 instances of night work, totaling 2,484 hours. Although the number of employees working nights rose by one from 2024, the number of instances increased by 24.8%.

At the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 209 researchers worked more than 100 hours of overtime in 2025. Of these, 68 worked more than 200 hours of overtime, and 39 worked more than 300 hours. The number of researchers who worked more than 300 hours of overtime in a year declined from 51 in 2023 to 44 in 2024 and 39 in 2025, but dozens of researchers worked long hours for three consecutive years.

At the Korea Institute of Toxicology, 50 researchers recorded a total of 813 instances of holiday work in 2025, averaging 16.3 instances per researcher who worked on holidays. Of the institute’s 150 research staff, 30 had worked on holidays at least four times in at least one month.

Working hours obscured by research autonomy... Overwork prevention systems need review

A more serious problem is the difficulty of determining the actual working hours of some researchers. The number of research staff entries at government-funded research institutes submitted to NST in 2025, classified by working-hours system, totaled 9,602. The records stated that actual average monthly and weekly working hours could not be calculated for 2,957 of these entries (30.8%).

Rep. Kim Namguk of the Democratic Party of Korea asks a question. Photo courtesy of Rep. Kim Namguk's office.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said it could not calculate the actual working hours or the status of overtime, night and holiday work for 553 research staff covered by the discretionary work-hour system.

Under the discretionary work-hour system, researchers determine how to carry out their work and allocate their time, while hours agreed upon by labor and management are recognized as hours worked. Because the system takes into account the nature of research work, a failure to calculate actual working hours separately does not in itself constitute a violation of the law. However, without a separate system to monitor researchers’ workloads and risk of overwork, it may be difficult to detect long working hours early, even when they are recurring.

Depending on their research fields, government-funded research institutes may need to conduct experiments and tests, make observations, or operate large-scale research facilities at night or on holidays. Therefore, the number of work instances alone is not enough to conclude that working conditions are improper. However, observers say it is necessary to separately examine whether work is concentrated among particular researchers and whether they receive adequate rest and compensation for overtime.

“Researchers’ autonomy and flexible working environments must be protected, but we must not overlook the repeated concentration of holiday work and overtime on particular researchers,” Kim Namguk said. “NST and each government-funded research institute should respect research autonomy while monitoring workload concentration and the provision of rest and compensation, and establish effective management systems to prevent overwork.”

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