Sorrowful Non-Regular Workers... Only 27% Receive 'Paid Leave' When Confirmed with COVID-19

"Only 45% of Non-Regular Workers Feel Free to Use Paid Sick Leave"
Experts Say "Urgent Need for System Improvement and Introduction of Sickness Benefits"

A survey revealed that half of non-regular workers took unpaid leave to quarantine despite testing positive for COVID-19.

According to a survey conducted from March 3 to 10 on 1,000 workers commissioned by the civic group Workplace Bullying 119 and the Office and Finance Ubuntu Foundation to the polling agency Embrain Public, 48.6% of workers who tested positive for COVID-19 used paid leave. Among workers confirmed with COVID-19, 30.6% took unpaid leave, and 17.6% worked from home. There were also 3.2% of respondents who answered that they went to work (worked).

When broken down by regular and non-regular workers, 59.8% of regular workers took paid leave, 18.9% took unpaid leave, and 18.1% worked from home. However, among non-regular workers, more than half (53.0%) took unpaid leave, nearly three times higher than the unpaid leave rate of regular workers. The paid leave rate for non-regular workers was 26.9%, less than half that of regular workers, and the work-from-home rate was 16.8%.

COVID-19 Testing Site. Photo is not related to the specific content of the article.

The paid leave rate also showed significant differences between union members (70.9%) and non-members (44.7%), as well as between those earning over 5 million won per month (64.2%) and those earning less than 1.5 million won per month (22.3%).

Among workers who showed COVID-19-like symptoms such as the flu but were not confirmed positive for COVID-19, only 20.5% used paid leave. For COVID-19-like symptoms, responses for going to work (29.8%), unpaid leave (25.8%), and working from home (23.9%) were higher than the use of paid leave. Similar to confirmed COVID-19 cases, the paid leave usage rate for COVID-19-like symptoms was low among non-regular workers (10.3%), those earning less than 1.5 million won per month (9.5%), and non-union members (18.0%).

When asked whether they could freely use paid sick leave at their company, 59.7% of workers responded "yes," while 40.3% said "no." The response indicating free use of paid sick leave was 69.3% for regular workers and 45.3% for non-regular workers.

Workplace Bullying 119 also disclosed reports related to COVID-19, including cases where workers "were recommended to resign during COVID-19 quarantine" and "were forced to go to work during quarantine and are now being disciplined or dismissed for unauthorized absence because they could not go to work."

Following the easing of quarantine measures, the government will reduce the mandatory 7-day isolation for COVID-19 positive cases to a recommended 5-day isolation starting next month. Regarding this, labor attorney Kwon Nampyo of Workplace Bullying 119 pointed out, "Workers in small and medium-sized enterprises without paid sick leave systems and vulnerable laborers have no choice but to go to work or use annual leave even if they contract COVID-19," emphasizing the need for institutional improvements. Attorney Kwon added, "It is time to urgently implement effective sickness benefits as a right to rest when sick."