Survey of 1,000 workers by Workplace Harassment 119

Conditions particularly dire at firms with fewer than 30 employees

[123rf]
[123rf]

Seven in 10 workers who took on extra duties to cover for colleagues on parental or maternity leave received no additional compensation for doing so, a survey showed.

Workplace Harassment 119, a labor rights advocacy group, released the findings Sunday after commissioning polling firm Global Research to survey 1,000 employed adults aged 19 or older nationwide from Sept. 1 to Sept. 7. The survey examined the burden placed on coworkers when colleagues use parental protection leave.

When asked whether their workload had increased due to a colleague taking maternity, parental or reduced-hours childcare leave, 47.8 percent of respondents said it had. Workplace Harassment 119 said employers tend to redistribute the workload to remaining staff rather than hire replacement workers or restructure duties.

Of the 478 respondents who said they had covered a colleague's duties, only 29.5 percent said they had received additional compensation such as an allowance. The remaining 70.5 percent took on the extra work without any additional pay.

Workers who belonged to a union or were employed at firms with 30 or more staff — generally higher-wage groups — were more likely to have received compensation. At workplaces with fewer than 30 employees, only 2 in 10 respondents said they had been compensated.

Among the government's work-sharing support programs, 37 percent of respondents said they were aware of the parental leave work-sharing subsidy. Awareness of the reduced working-hours childcare subsidy stood at 29.5 percent, while 29.7 percent said they knew of the spousal birth leave sharing allowance.

Only 12.4 percent of respondents said the work-sharing support programs were actively communicated at their workplace and used in practice. Some 46.4 percent said the programs were mentioned but not actually used, while 41.2 percent said the programs were neither communicated nor used at all.

Awareness and uptake of the programs were lower at smaller workplaces and among non-union workers.

When asked what compensation they would need when covering for a colleague on parental leave, respondents cited the introduction or expansion of a work-substitution allowance (27.5 percent), expanded benefits such as higher year-end bonuses or performance review credits (24.8 percent), and additional leave proportional to the period of coverage (19.7 percent).

"The government must expand related programs — including supporting employers in securing replacement workers and paying allowances to workers who take on extra duties — and improve their effectiveness," Workplace Harassment 119 said. "It should also actively inform both workers and employers so that the programs are actually put to use."


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com