By Kim Se-jeong
Lee, 33, a nurse in a Seoul hospital, can’t forget her colleagues’ reaction two years ago when she got pregnant.
“I thought everyone would be happy for me because it was my first child, and it had been so hard for me to get pregnant. But the first thing my senior said was, ‘How come you’re having a baby now? It was my turn,’” Lee said.
Lee’s story is one of many among female medical staffers ― doctors, nurses and others.
It is not a written regulation by employers but is the unspoken rule agreed upon among female colleagues, especially in big hospitals, that people take turns to have their babies.
The main reason is to prevent the remaining employees from having to endure the heavy workloads when the pregnant workers take their maternity leaves because most medical facilities do not have enough people to take up the slack. Heavy workloads can also affect the quality of medical services for patients.
But complaints are immense from affected workers that it is a violation of the rights of a woman, and the rule disturbs the plans they have made for their personal lives.
On Monday, the National Human Rights Commission decided to recommend that the government take action to improve their conditions, recognizing the issue is serious enough to be addressed.
The non-binding recommendation will be issued to the Ministry of Health and Welfare that governs medical service, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor that is responsible for workers’ rights.
Monday’s decision followed a survey of 1,130 female medical service workers as well as from other studies conducted last year.
The survey found that 39.5 percent of the female nurses had experienced peer pressure about family planning. The pressure was even worse for women doctors who were mainly surrounded by their male colleagues, as more than 70 percent of them said they had no freedom to plan their pregnancies.
Many responded that they were pressured to work late while pregnant, which is against the law, and to share workloads with colleagues. Some ended up aborting their pregnancy in fear of mounting pressures and getting bullied, according to the survey.
The issue has long been a problem in the medical industry: the rights commission received 59 complaints involving the medical service industry between 2003 and 2015, and 21 of them had to do with the pregnancy issue.
Besides pregnancy, the survey and the studies showed female medical staffers have suffered from sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Many interviewees said they also endured discrimination, verbal and physical abuses and sexual harassment. Discrimination and sexual harassment were particularly high among female doctors.
“Having a child is one of the biggest events of one’s life. It makes no sense that people change their plans to accommodate their work schedule,” said Han Mi-jung, general secretary of the Korea Health & Medical Workers’ Union.
Han said the only solution to the problem would be by increasing the size of the pool of trained nurses, adding that the government should take the lead to solve the issue.
“I believe supplying medical service providers is the job of the government. It needs to make a thorough investigation of the situation and then come up with a strategy to supply enough quality people when needed.”