Gloomy holiday
Oh In-hwan, 23, works at the convenience store GS25 in Seoul on Sept. 3.
By Kim Hye-kyung
Like many Koreans, convenience store worker Oh In-hwan is looking forward to some time off during the Chuseok holiday. But he’ll have much less time than others.
“I’m lucky this year because I can take one extra day off,” said Oh, a part-time employee of GS25.
“I didn’t expect that I could even take one day off. But my boss allowed me to rest on Monday,” Oh told The Korea Times.
Oh’s predicament reflects the hardship of part-time employees, who don’t enjoy the same benefits of full-time workers, even on Chuseok, the national Thanksgiving holiday.
Chuseok this year runs from Saturday to Tuesday, though many workers will take Wednesday off under a law that affects holidays that begin on a weekend.
However, the law doesn’t apply to Oh, who normally works every weekday.
This year, he’s lucky because his regularly-scheduled day-off, Sunday, bumps up against the extra day his boss is allowing him. Unfortunately, however, he was asked to take a coworker’s shift on Saturday.
Life isn’t easy for Oh, who dropped out of university because his family needed financial help. He works seven hours-a-day and gets paid only 800,000 won a month ($785), which he says “is not nearly enough” to make ends meet.
In that regard, working on holidays has a faint silver lining.
“To tell the truth, it’s good because I can get paid more. There is nothing to do during holidays anyway because I am always short of money,” he said.
In reality, Chuseok, which Oh used to love, has become a difficult time.
“My relatives brag about their children attending prestigious universities. I’m like an invisible man during holidays ever since graduating from high school,” he said.
Oh said he’s ready to escape the part-time cycle in Korea, at least for a while.
“I’m going for a working holiday in Japan next year. I heard that Japan is a better place to live for part-timers.”