Seoul Education Office Rejects Rights Commission Recommendation to "Recognize Experience at Contracted Daycare Centers"

National Human Rights Commission: "Unfair to discriminate based on whether centers are directly operated or contracted"
Six years as a childcare teacher at a contracted center not counted toward salary steps
Education office: "Difficult under relevant regulations"... maintains its position

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education rejected a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to count experience working at publicly operated daycare centers run under contract toward salary steps. The Commission found that refusing to recognize experience at contracted daycare centers while recognizing experience at directly operated centers was discriminatory, but the education office maintained its position, citing the relevant regulations.

According to the Commission on November 10, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education informed it on September 16, 2026, that it would be difficult to implement the recommendation to improve the system. The Commission determined that the education office had rejected the recommendation and decided to make the rejection public.

Entrance to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The Asia Business Daily database.

The case began with a salary-step dispute involving Employee A, an administrative staff member at a private school. Before being hired by the school in 2011, A worked as a childcare teacher for more than six years at two national and public daycare centers whose operation had been entrusted by local governments to private operators.

Last year, A asked the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to recognize 50% of their previous experience as comparable experience and count it toward their salary steps, but the education office declined. It said A had worked at facilities entrusted to private operators, rather than at daycare centers run directly by local governments.

On June 19, 2026, the Commission recommended that the Seoul superintendent of education not differentiate whether experience is recognized based on how national and public daycare centers are operated. It said that both directly operated and contracted daycare centers are public childcare facilities established by local governments, and that childcare teachers perform substantially the same work at both types of centers. The Commission's position is that experience should be recognized according to the same standards whenever the work involves the same childcare duties, regardless of who operates the center.

However, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it would be difficult to change the policy because the relevant regulations it follows when setting salary steps for private-school employees treat experience at directly operated and contracted facilities differently. The education office explained that, as the agency providing personnel-cost subsidies for private-school employees, it had no choice but to follow the regulations.

An official from the Commission said, "It is not appropriate to apply different standards for recognizing experience based on the operating arrangements of national and public daycare centers."

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