Disease Control Agency Accepts Human Rights Commission Recommendation... Allowance Payment to Indirectly Employed Workers in Medical Institutions

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has accepted the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK), ensuring that workers indirectly employed by medical institutions will also receive allowances.

On the 5th, the NHRCK announced that the KDCA accepted its recommendation not to exclude indirectly employed workers at medical institutions from the COVID-19 infection control allowance payment target.

In January of this year, the KDCA established the "COVID-19 Infection Control Allowance Payment Guidelines" and paid allowances worth up to 50,000 KRW per day to healthcare personnel and workers. However, the guidelines limited the allowance recipients to "personnel directly affiliated with medical institutions." This excluded indirectly employed workers such as dispatched and contract workers from receiving the allowance.

In February, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) National Health and Medical Industry Labor Union filed a complaint with the NHRCK demanding correction of this discrimination. The NHRCK accepted the complaint and in July recommended that the KDCA take measures to ensure that indirectly employed workers performing the same or similar duties as directly affiliated workers are not excluded from the allowance payment target.

At that time, the KDCA stated that it limited the recipients to maximize results within a limited budget, but the NHRCK did not accept this. The NHRCK judged, "The purpose of the allowance itself is to boost morale and improve treatment of medical personnel," and "Since the payment criteria are based on the frequency of contact with COVID-19 patients and risk exposure, indirectly employed workers should not be excluded due to budget reasons."

The KDCA announced that it revised the guidelines according to the NHRCK's recommendation and has been implementing them since August 4. The KDCA set the allowance amount and payment scope for indirectly employed workers to be the same as those for directly affiliated workers. Furthermore, it decided to retroactively pay allowances for the period from January to July of this year.

The NHRCK stated, "We welcome the KDCA's acceptance of the recommendation," and added, "We will continue to make efforts to investigate and remedy discriminatory acts to prevent unreasonable employment discrimination based on employment type."