The Part-Time Workers' Union Welcomes Cabinet Approval of the Bill to Abolish Fractional Quotas

Elimination of Decimal Quotas Contributes to Removing Internal Discrimination Against Part-Time Public Officials

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Jeong Seong-hye, Chairperson of the Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union affiliated with the Korean Federation of Public Service and Transportation Workers' Unions, stated on the 26th, “With the amendment of Article 24, Paragraph 3 of the General Rules on the Organization and Staffing of Administrative Agencies at the Cabinet meeting, the method of calculating one person’s staffing as 0.5 (20 hours), 0.875 (35 hours), etc., according to working hours is expected to be abolished.”

Before this law was amended, part-time workers working 20 hours per week were calculated as 0.5, resulting in issues such as receiving office supplies like desks and PCs at a ratio of two people per one item, causing discrimination in work and equipment or lack of individual support.

In particular, for part-time public officials who switched to part-time work from full-time 40-hour workers, the staffing was calculated as one full unit even if their hours were reduced, causing discrimination compared to part-time public officials whose staffing was calculated in decimals according to working hours.

On August 26 last year, the Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union held an online discussion titled “Abolition of the decimal staffing system for part-time public officials treated as 0.5, 0.875,” inviting experts from various fields to focus on this issue and discuss solutions.

Also, during the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee audit, Representative Oh Young-hwan said, “Discrimination should be considered from the perspective of those who feel it,” and following his criticism of the decimal staffing system, Minister Jeon Hae-cheol of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety responded, “We will abolish the decimal staffing system.” As a follow-up, this law amendment passed the Cabinet meeting.

In Issue No. 1886, titled “Current Status and Improvement Tasks of Part-Time Public Officials,” prepared by Park Young-won, Head of the Public Administration and Safety Team at the National Assembly Legislative Research Office on October 22 last year, problems related to the management of decimal staffing in organizational charts were raised.

According to the National Public Officials Act, a “position” refers to the duties and responsibilities assigned to one public official, and there is criticism about whether it is appropriate to express one position proportionally in decimals according to working hours. (Omitted) Since the introduction of decimals in organizational charts, there has been an issue of unclear staffing numbers for each rank, and general public officials who switched from full-time to part-time are not subject to decimal management, leading to inconsistency in staffing management.

Jeong Seong-hye, Chairperson of the Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union, said, “Although the decimal staffing system has been abolished with this law amendment, the clause stating ‘the total weekly working hours of 40 hours are calculated as one full staffing unit’ remains, so those working less than 40 hours are still not fully recognized as one person. To completely eliminate discrimination, one person should be counted as one full staffing unit regardless of working hours.”

The Part-Time Public Officials Labor Union, together with Representative Lee Hae-sik of the Democratic Party (Gangdong-gu Eul, Seoul), has proposed a partial amendment to the National Public Officials Act to redefine the staffing of part-time public officials as “the number of public officials by type and rank belonging to each institution, expressed as whole numbers at the institutional level,” and also jointly proposed partial amendments to the Government Organization Act and the Local Public Officials Act on April 7, 2022.

Kim Hyun-jin, Chairperson of the Korean Federation of Public Service and Transportation Workers' Unions, stated, “Classifying one person as 0.5, 0.875, etc., according to working hours is discrimination that contradicts human dignity as stated in the Constitution. Along with this law, we will spare no support to ensure that the Government Organization Act, which is pending in the National Assembly and requires staffing of part-time public officials to be calculated by headcount regardless of working hours, can be implemented.”