Firefighters' Union Demands Improvement in Asset Disclosure

Firefighters' Union Holds Firefighting Policy Meeting with Assemblyman Lee Hae-sik

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The National Fire Safety Public Officials Labor Union (Chairman Hong Soon-tak) announced that on the 30th at 2 p.m., they held a policy meeting to improve the treatment of firefighters at the office of Lee Hae-sik, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, located in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.

This policy meeting was prepared as an opportunity to discuss various firefighting issues and improvements in the treatment of firefighters, focusing particularly on changes to the property registration subjects for firefighters and revisions to the dispatch allowance.

At the policy meeting, Chairman Hong Soon-tak stated, “Currently, general public officials are required to register their assets starting from grade 4 and above, but for firefighters, only those at the level of Fire Lieutenant (equivalent to grade 7) and above are subject to public official property registration. This is not equitable. We ask you to consider abolishing the property registration requirement for firefighters below the rank of Fire Captain, excluding those in charge of permits and those in personnel and finance departments.” He continued, “Regarding the dispatch allowance firefighters receive when responding to calls, currently, 3,000 KRW is calculated per dispatch up to three times a day, with a daily cap of 30,000 KRW. We propose calculating 3,000 KRW for each dispatch without a daily cap.”

Secretary Seong Si-woong from Assemblyman Lee Hae-sik’s office said, “I believe firefighters deserve treatment that matches their hard work for the public. The current property registration requirement for firefighters is clearly inequitable and needs to be revised. We will also organize the details well to reflect the reality of the dispatch allowance and convey them to Assemblyman Lee Hae-sik.”

Attending the firefighting policy meeting alongside Secretary Seong Si-woong from Assemblyman Lee’s office were Hong Soon-tak, Chairman of the Korean Federation of Trade Unions Firefighters’ Union, Bae Han-jin, Director of Policy (Busan Chairman), and Gong Byung-sam, Director of Public Relations.