Itanhee Proposes No Work No Pay Law for National Assembly Members... "Salary Suspension if Imprisoned"

Legislation Proposed on Parliamentary Aides and Allowances
Includes Provisions for Recovery of Paid Allowances

Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Tan-hee has proposed a bill that would stop paying salaries and allowances to members of the National Assembly who are under detention, and recover any salaries already paid. Attention is focused on whether the privileges of lawmakers, who have continued to receive salaries even while detained, will disappear.

On the 22nd, Lee announced that he had introduced the "Partial Amendment to the Act on Staff and Allowances of Members of the National Assembly," which suspends the payment of salaries and allowances to lawmakers while they are detained.

Currently, public officials, including local government heads and local council members, have their salaries restricted if they are unable to perform their duties. However, in the case of lawmakers, even if they are detained, they can continue to receive an average monthly salary of over 12 million won without limitation until a guilty verdict is finalized resulting in loss of their seat or until they submit a resignation letter, even without engaging in legislative activities.

Lee’s office explained, "In fact, one lawmaker who was detained received a basic allowance of about 7.6 million won and a legislative activity allowance of about 3.1 million won each month, and excluding the special activity allowance received for attending plenary sessions, he received over 80 million won in allowances during the eight months of detention." Upon verification, this lawmaker is Jeong Chan-min of the People Power Party, who was sentenced to seven years in the appellate court on bribery charges.

Lee Tan-hee, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The amendment includes provisions to suspend payments of allowances, legislative activity expenses, and special activity expenses to detained lawmakers, similar to other public officials, and to recover payments already made. It establishes grounds for prohibiting and recovering payments to lawmakers who are unable to perform their duties due to detention. The amendment also includes clauses for recovering payments already made to lawmakers detained after the law’s enforcement. However, if a detained lawmaker is acquitted, exempted from prosecution, or the indictment is dismissed with a final decision, the law provides for payment of previously unpaid or recovered allowances.

Before Lee, four similar bills had already been introduced by lawmakers Jeong Cheong-rae (Democratic Party), Seo Beom-su (People Power Party), Lee Jong-bae (People Power Party), and Kim Nam-guk (Independent). However, these related bills were referred to the National Assembly Steering Committee’s Subcommittee on National Assembly Operation Improvement, the relevant standing committee, but proper discussions have not taken place.

Lee said, "The salaries of lawmakers are taxes given by the people to work for the people," adding, "It is not right that the principle of no work, no pay does not apply only to lawmakers." He continued, "I hope this bill will help lawmakers relinquish their privileges and restore public trust in the National Assembly."