Ministry of the Interior and Safety - Public Officials Union, First Policy Council Meeting of the Year

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety met with public servant unions to discuss 18 institutional improvement measures related to personnel, service, and compensation.

On the 19th, the Ministry announced that it held the first meeting of the '2024 Public Servant Union Policy Council' chaired by Vice Minister Ko Gi-dong. About 20 representatives from the three major unions?the Federation of Public Officials' Unions, the Korea Public Officials Labor Union Confederation, and the National Public Officials Labor Union?attended the meeting.

Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Go Gidong, attended the 2024 2nd Central-Local Policy Council held at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 7th, discussing measures to stabilize public livelihood during the Lunar New Year holiday with heads of local governments nationwide. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

The Policy Council, first established in 2018, is regularly held every year to discuss rational improvement plans regarding personnel and service matters. This year, the public servant unions proposed 18 agenda items through the Policy Council: 12 in personnel and service, 4 in salary and allowances, and 2 in education and training.

The main demands include the introduction of a separate quota system to cover vacancies caused by parental leave, counting the duration of parental leave towards promotion eligibility periods, and expanding working hours for part-time public servants. Additionally, the agenda includes improvements to compensation and allowance systems such as abolishing overtime pay for grade 5 public servants in metropolitan and provincial governments, providing management duty allowances, and mandating various allowances for trainee public servants.

Earlier, reflecting the continuous proposals made by the public servant unions through the Policy Council, the Ministry announced the 'Measures to Create Conditions for Concentrated Public Servant Work' last month. Starting with this meeting, the Policy Council will discuss the union's requested agenda items and finalize the consultation results by December this year.

Vice Minister Ko said, "We will strengthen the agenda consultation function with the public servant unions so that the Policy Council can play a practical role, and actively promote institutional improvements for matters agreed upon in the council. We will also communicate frequently with the field to alleviate difficulties faced by frontline public servants."