[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] As the social atmosphere emphasizing work-life balance (WLB) spreads, the use of annual leave by office workers has increased.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 17th, the results of the "2019 Worker Vacation Survey" conducted by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (targeting 2,000 businesses and 5,000 workers) showed that the number of days of annual leave used by regular workers last year was 10.9 days, an increase of 1.0 day from 9.9 days in 2018. The annual leave utilization rate in 2019 was also 72.4%, up 1.7 percentage points from 70.7% in 2018.
By month, the use of annual leave in July and August decreased by 1.5 percentage points from 31.6% in 2018 to 30.1% in 2019, while the use of annual leave in periods other than the summer vacation season increased evenly, indicating that demand concentrated in summer was dispersed.
The reasons for not using leave were receiving annual leave allowance (21.8%), lack of substitute personnel (15.9%), and excessive workload (14.4%), in that order. On the other hand, cases of not taking leave due to concern about supervisors' eyes (5.3%) or organizational regulatory atmosphere (3.2%) were gradually decreasing. The percentage of businesses implementing the "Leave Use Promotion System" increased by 12.4 percentage points from 20% the previous year to 32.4%.
The Leave Use Promotion System requests the use of unused annual leave six months before the expiration of the usage period, and if the worker does not designate the leave period, the company designates and enforces its use. The annual leave utilization rate of businesses that introduced this system was 80.5%, higher than the overall utilization rate of 72.4%.
The average annual expenditure by workers during annual leave last year was 1,234,000 KRW, an increase of 345,000 KRW from 889,000 KRW the previous year. Men (1,307,000 KRW) spent more than women (1,161,000 KRW), and those in their 30s and 40s spent over 1.3 million KRW, more than other age groups.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with the Regional Culture Promotion Agency, selected 63 companies that excellently support and operate so that workers can harmoniously balance work and leisure life as "2020 Leisure-Friendly Companies."
Creative Partners, ATGC, Flip Communications, and POSCO Energy received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award as the top companies, while N2B, Chalet Korea, Techville Education, and Ulsan Port Authority each received the Jimoongwon Award. HM and BEXCO, small and medium-sized enterprises located in provincial areas, were given special awards.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
