Committee to discuss better treatment for public employees, fixed-term, dispatched and outsourced workers

Working committee capped at 30 members, development council at 20, sector-specific councils at 15

Youth age range under youth employment law expanded from 15-29 to 15-34

Related enforcement decrees take effect Sept. 18

Minister of Education Choi Kyo-jin (fifth from left) poses for a photo Friday at Government Complex Sejong after signing a collective agreement on national school education support staff with representatives of the National School Non-Regular Workers Solidarity Conference. The agreement applies to education support staff at 42 national schools overseen by the Ministry of Education nationwide. Key agreed items include expanding paid sick leave days, increasing annual leave days for non-working staff during school vacations, and extending the period for compensating wage differences for workers on leave due to industrial accidents.
Minister of Education Choi Kyo-jin (fifth from left) poses for a photo Friday at Government Complex Sejong after signing a collective agreement on national school education support staff with representatives of the National School Non-Regular Workers Solidarity Conference. The agreement applies to education support staff at 42 national schools overseen by the Ministry of Education nationwide. Key agreed items include expanding paid sick leave days, increasing annual leave days for non-working staff during school vacations, and extending the period for compensating wage differences for workers on leave due to industrial accidents.

The government has set detailed operating standards for a new committee tasked with improving conditions for public employees, a public-sector job classification, as well as fixed-term, dispatched and outsourced workers. The age range covered by youth employment policy will also expand, from 29 and under to 34 and under.

The Cabinet on Tuesday deliberated and approved the enforcement decree of the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Public Employees Committee, along with a revision to the enforcement decree of the Special Act on Promotion of Youth Employment. Both decrees take effect Sept. 18.

The enforcement decree spells out procedures for convening meetings of the Public Employees Committee and sets standards for organizing and running its subordinate councils. The committee is a labor-government consultative body that discusses improving conditions for public employees, as well as fixed-term, dispatched and outsourced or contracted workers.

Under the decree, the working committee will be capped at 30 members, the development council at 20, and sector-specific councils at 15 each. The decree also lays out detailed procedures for appointing committee members and other matters needed to operate the councils.

Until now, discussions on wages, benefits and job security for non-regular workers in the public sector had been scattered across individual institutions and occupational groups. The launch of the Public Employees Committee establishes an institutional framework through which the government and labor groups can hold ongoing talks on these issues.

The government expects the committee to help eliminate discrimination against non-regular workers in the public sector and improve both the quality of employment and the level of public services.

The government also revised the enforcement decree of the Special Act on Promotion of Youth Employment. Since the law itself now directly defines the youth age range as 15 to 34, up from the previous 15 to 29, the government removed the corresponding age provision from the enforcement decree and adjusted related clauses accordingly.

As a result, the legal scope of youth employment support policies will expand to cover people in their early 30s. The government said the change is aimed at bringing more consistency to youth age standards that had varied by ministry and by project, while strengthening support for young people entering the labor market.


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