By Chung Ah-young
Civil servants have long been thought of as living with an "iron rice bowl," which means they enjoy job security and stable income.
Such a long tradition will be put to the test as the Ministry of Personnel Management (MPM) pushes ahead with reforms on civil service salaries and vacations.
Minister Lee Geun-myeon, a former Samsung Electronics executive who took office November 2014, vowed to revamp the civil service management system based on performance.
Lee's plan is in line with President Park Geun-hye's earlier pledge to reform the system based on performance and competence.
The MPM recently announced its intention to expand the performance-based incentive system ― which is now applied to high-ranking public servants ― to the rank and file beginning in 2017. By that time, the system will apply to 15.4 percent of civil servants, up from 4.5 percent now.
According to the MPM, the reforms will reduce the ratio of basic pay and instead increase the ratio of incentives.
The plan is designed to change the current pay system in which civil servants' wages rise automatically according to the number of years they have served.
"Under the current pay system, public servants are paid based solely on their years of service," Lee said. "But for the long term, we will revamp the system so their pay will be based on performance."
Also, the government will penalize those public servants ― even with dismissal ― who continue to receive poor evaluations without improvement.
The MPM plans to expand the reforms to include teachers at public schools, military personnel, firefighters, police and diplomats.
However, it remains to be seen if the plan can really change the civil service and break the iron rice bowl, as many public servants oppose it.
"The government only encourages performance, driving public servants into a corner," said the Confederation of Korean Government Employees' Unions.
"This performance-based system will likely be abused by the government to fire employees it doesn't want by its own arbitrary standards," it said.
A public servant who refused to be named added, "It is very hard to evaluate civil servants' performances, unlike other occupations such as business. Unacceptable evaluations may destroy our morale."
More vacation
The minister also has stressed that public servants should have longer vacations so that when they get back to work, they can better concentrate on their jobs.
Most public workers usually do not use the vacation time they are due. According to the ministry, the amount of leave taken by central government employees was 9.3 days per person last year.
To encourage long-term vacations, the ministry revised related rules, including the rule enabling public servants to save up their leave for as much as three years so that they can use that time for a 40-day vacation, for example.
Lee actually ordered officials at the ministry to take a year-end vacation after Dec. 25 by using their remaining leave to spend more time with their families.
But the union is skeptical about the plan.
"We welcome the encouragement for time off but we are skeptical of its intention which might reduce the government's spending on unused leave," it said.
The ministry said that it doesn't expect dramatic changes from the new salary and vacation measures among civil servants as a whole. "We will make the changes one by one, starting with the performance evaluation system," a ministry official said.
Civil servants have long been thought of as living with an "iron rice bowl," which means they enjoy job security and stable income.
Such a long tradition will be put to the test as the Ministry of Personnel Management (MPM) pushes ahead with reforms on civil service salaries and vacations.
Minister Lee Geun-myeon, a former Samsung Electronics executive who took office November 2014, vowed to revamp the civil service management system based on performance.
Lee's plan is in line with President Park Geun-hye's earlier pledge to reform the system based on performance and competence.
The MPM recently announced its intention to expand the performance-based incentive system ― which is now applied to high-ranking public servants ― to the rank and file beginning in 2017. By that time, the system will apply to 15.4 percent of civil servants, up from 4.5 percent now.
According to the MPM, the reforms will reduce the ratio of basic pay and instead increase the ratio of incentives.
The plan is designed to change the current pay system in which civil servants' wages rise automatically according to the number of years they have served.
"Under the current pay system, public servants are paid based solely on their years of service," Lee said. "But for the long term, we will revamp the system so their pay will be based on performance."
Also, the government will penalize those public servants ― even with dismissal ― who continue to receive poor evaluations without improvement.
The MPM plans to expand the reforms to include teachers at public schools, military personnel, firefighters, police and diplomats.
However, it remains to be seen if the plan can really change the civil service and break the iron rice bowl, as many public servants oppose it.
"The government only encourages performance, driving public servants into a corner," said the Confederation of Korean Government Employees' Unions.
"This performance-based system will likely be abused by the government to fire employees it doesn't want by its own arbitrary standards," it said.
A public servant who refused to be named added, "It is very hard to evaluate civil servants' performances, unlike other occupations such as business. Unacceptable evaluations may destroy our morale."
More vacation
The minister also has stressed that public servants should have longer vacations so that when they get back to work, they can better concentrate on their jobs.
Most public workers usually do not use the vacation time they are due. According to the ministry, the amount of leave taken by central government employees was 9.3 days per person last year.
To encourage long-term vacations, the ministry revised related rules, including the rule enabling public servants to save up their leave for as much as three years so that they can use that time for a 40-day vacation, for example.
Lee actually ordered officials at the ministry to take a year-end vacation after Dec. 25 by using their remaining leave to spend more time with their families.
But the union is skeptical about the plan.
"We welcome the encouragement for time off but we are skeptical of its intention which might reduce the government's spending on unused leave," it said.
The ministry said that it doesn't expect dramatic changes from the new salary and vacation measures among civil servants as a whole. "We will make the changes one by one, starting with the performance evaluation system," a ministry official said.
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