Employers told to give workers longer Chuseok holiday
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The government has recommended the business community extend the Chuseok holiday to nine days. / Yonhap
By Choi Sung-jin
The government has recommended the business community extend the Chuseok holiday to nine days, officials said.
Workers usually have a three-day holiday on Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving Day. This year, Chuseok falls on next Thursday, Sept. 15, and the holiday continues through Sunday. Yet the government is telling managers to allow their employees to take Monday and Tuesday as annual paid holidays. In this case, the holiday can extend to nine days, starting from this weekend.
The government has lengthened holidays by designating a day between official holidays and weekends as temporary holidays but this is the first time it has tried to extend holidays by using annual leave.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor has sent letters to that effect to the nation’s five major business associations -- the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Federation of Korean Industries, the Korea Employers Federation, the Korea International Trade Association and the Federation of SMEs.
The five organizations are planning to tell their member companies to cooperate with the government’s guideline. The ministry also told regional labor offices to implement the annual leave system more actively.
“During the two days before Chuseok, work efficiency can’t help but decline,” said Chung Ji-won, a director general responsible for labor standard policies. “If we enable workers to use annual leave, it will not only allow them to make good use of their leisure time but will help improve productivity and stimulate private consumption.”
Currently, only 60.6 percent of Korean workers are using their annual paid leave. And the ratio of workers who use the system goes down as the number of workers goes up. The annual leave use ratio, for instance, is 47.9 percent in businesses hiring 500-999 workers and 52 percent for companies employing 1,000 workers or more.
While workers in small and midsize enterprise are more willing to use their annual paid leave, depending on their workload, people working in the subsidiaries of large business groups tend to use it less for fear of upsetting their bosses or in expectation of high stipends for unused annual leave. Article 60 of the Labor Standard Act stipulates employers allow 15-25 days of annual paid leave.
“We will focus administrative power on shortening working hours by reinvigorating the use of annual holidays and reducing unnecessary night overtime,” said Chung. “Through these measures, we not only want to improve productivity but raise the employment rate.”