By Kim Jae-heun
Korea Post will introduce a five-day workweek for mail carriers this year, the postal authority said Wednesday.
Under an agreement with its union, the system, which has been introduced in other public sectors, will be tested at 24 post offices across the country from March to June and expanded to other places in July.
The move is part of the Moon Jae-in administration’s campaign to strike a balance between work and private life for workers.
If the test operation goes well in the first half of the year, the system will expand nationwide in the second half, according to Korea Post.
All postal workers previously worked from Monday to Friday and took turns working on Saturdays. However, under the new system, one group will work from Monday to Friday and the other from Tuesday to Saturday.
Korea Post saidits weekend operations will continue without problems.
In past years, postal workers worked an average of 48.7 hours a week, more than the 40 statutory working hours suggested in the Labor Standards Acts. Forty-six percent of them even extended their working hours to over 52, which is the maximum allowed.
Korea Post President Kang Seong-ju said: “We hope to improve the working environment of the postal workers who are currently exposed to long hours of work.”
The new system will be tested in a range of different-sized cities and regions.