**Korea Job World Uses Family Care Leave at ‘0%’ for Three Consecutive Years, with Four Affiliated Institutions Showing Single-Digit Usage Rates**
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Go Mi-hye – The family care leave system, designed to help employees balance work and family life, is not being effectively utilized within institutions under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the very ministry responsible for overseeing this policy.
According to the usage statistics of family care leave by public institutions under the Ministry of Labor obtained by Rep. Kim Tae-sun of the Democratic Party from the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee on the 21st, Korea Job World’s usage rate was 0% for 2022, last year, and up until June of this year.
Similarly, the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, another affiliated public institution, had a usage rate of 0% in 2022 and this year, with a slight increase to 4.7% last year. The Korea Employment Information Service, a quasi-government agency, had a usage rate of 0.4% in 2022, 3% last year, and only 0.8% in the first half of this year.
The Construction Workers’ Mutual Aid Association recorded usage rates of 2% in 2022, 3% last year, and 1% for the first half of this year, with four out of twelve affiliated institutions having single-digit usage rates.
Other institutions such as the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service (26.8% last year), Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (19.9%), Human Resources Development Service of Korea (19%), and Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled (20.5%) recorded usage rates around 20%.
Introduced in 2020, family care leave allows employees to take leave when urgent care is needed for family members, including parents, grandparents, spouses, and children, due to illness, accidents, aging, or child-rearing. Employees can take up to 10 days per year, divided into single days, but the average usage in labor ministry-affiliated public institutions was only 1-2 days.
In a survey conducted by the civic group Workplace Gabjil 119 last May of 1,000 office workers, 59% responded that they could not freely use family care leave or take time off, even if they had family members needing care due to disease, accidents, or aging.
Rep. Kim stated, “Even public institutions under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which should lead in balancing work and family life, are not properly implementing the legally mandated family care leave. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration should ensure a culture of freely using family care leave is established in public institutions, rather than merely proclaiming a commitment to overcoming low birth rates.”