"From This Year's April 10 General Election, Election Office Workers Who Are Public Officials Can Take Up to 2 Days Off"

Personnel Office "Institutional Guarantee of Rest Rights"

From the general election on April 10, public officials appointed as election supervisors, voting clerks, and counting clerks will be granted up to two days off.

The Ministry of Personnel Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 6th that they will publicly notify the partial amendment bills of the "National Public Officials Service Regulations" (Presidential Decree) and the "Local Public Officials Service Regulations" (Presidential Decree) containing these details.

The Ministry of Personnel Management explained that after collecting public opinions during the public notification period from the 7th to the 15th of this month, the amendments will be implemented next month and will first apply to early voting supervisors and early voting clerks working on the early voting days of the "22nd National Assembly Election" on the 5th and 6th of next month.

With this amendment, national and local public officials engaged in election duties such as election supervisors, voting clerks, and counting clerks on election days, including early voting days, will be granted a basic one day off.

If the election duty falls on a Saturday or a public holiday, an additional day off will be granted, totaling two days off. This is to provide sufficient rest time for work exceeding 15 hours during the early morning or late night on statutory holidays, thus increasing the day off by one when working on Saturdays or public holidays.

Typically, election supervisors and voting clerks arrive at least one hour before the voting starts to prepare for voting conducted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and can only leave after the polling station cleanup is completed following the end of voting.

Counting clerks arrive before the 6 p.m. voting end time to prepare for counting and can only leave in the early morning of the following day after counting is completed. Especially from this National Assembly election, with the addition of the ballot verification procedure, the completion time of counting is expected to be even later.

Until now, there was no explicit regulatory basis to grant leave or days off to public officials engaged in election duties, resulting in some cases where sufficient rest opportunities were not provided depending on the circumstances of certain institutions.

Some local governments have stipulated special leave for election workers through ordinances, but these are decided at the discretion of local government heads, and there was no common standard applied nationwide simultaneously to those engaged in the same election duties, resulting in varying numbers of leave days.

Once the amendment is implemented this April, heads of all national agencies and local governments must mandatorily grant one or two days off to all public officials engaged in voting and counting duties.

Kim Seung-ho, head of the Ministry of Personnel Management, said, "This is to ensure sufficient rest for the approximately 200,000 public officials who give up holidays and work late into the night due to election duties," adding, "With rest rights institutionally guaranteed, the burden of election duties will be reduced, and active participation of public officials is expected."