Same Duty-Free Store but Only Department Store Workers?… Seoul City Faces Controversy Over Fairness in Priority Vaccine Vaccination

Medical staff are preparing vaccines at the Dongjak-gu Citizens' Sports Center, where the COVID-19 vaccination center in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, is set up.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] Controversy over fairness has erupted regarding the selection of priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination in Seoul.

According to Seoul city and the distribution industry on the 1st, Seoul has designated workers at multi-use facilities such as restaurants and cafes, as well as employees at department stores and large supermarkets, as voluntary recipients of the third dose of the vaccine. After finalizing the list of eligible recipients by today, priority vaccinations will be conducted in August. The voluntary vaccination doses are allocated to local governments based on population proportion, and each local government is to determine the vaccination priority according to the local quarantine situation.

From the 26th to the 28th of last month, Seoul collected lists of individuals wishing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from department stores and large supermarkets in the city. This measure was taken after a large-scale cluster infection occurred recently at the Hyundai Department Store Trade Center branch, adding department store and large supermarket workers to the voluntary vaccination target group.

According to Seoul city, the third dose voluntary vaccination targets include regular workers, dispatched workers, short-term workers, and part-timers aged 18 to 49 who regularly enter department stores or large supermarkets for work-related purposes. This means that all people working in the building, regardless of affiliation, are classified as eligible for vaccination. As a result, about 44,000 people were selected as applicants from 90 large retail stores.

A cosmetics store in a department store in Seoul.
Photo by Yonhap News

However, employees of duty-free shops operating in separate single buildings, rather than within department store buildings, have expressed dissatisfaction with this measure. For example, Lotte Duty Free and Shinsegae Duty Free are affiliated with department stores and operate within department store buildings, but Shilla Duty Free and SM Duty Free operate as standalone buildings.

Another reason for the fairness controversy is that most employees who serve customers or handle sales at duty-free shops belong to partner companies of each brand, not the duty-free shop headquarters. Even if employees belong to the same partner company, those working in duty-free shops inside department stores are eligible for priority vaccination, but those working in duty-free shops in separate buildings are not.

However, even if the priority vaccination group is expanded in the future, it seems unlikely that all duty-free shop workers will be included. Seoul is currently selecting priority recipients based on large-scale stores under the Distribution Industry Development Act. According to this, large-scale stores are limited to 'department stores, large supermarkets, specialty stores, complex shopping malls, shopping centers, and other large-scale stores,' excluding duty-free shops.

Therefore, criticism is growing that duty-free shop workers should be prioritized for vaccination regardless of whether the duty-free shop is located inside a department store, as they are frequently visited by foreigners and have a high risk of COVID-19 spread. Some also point out that Seoul city did not properly understand the working conditions of duty-free shop employees during the initial demand survey.