Demand for Change Within Weekly Working Hours for Part-Time Public Officials

The National Time-Selective Public Officials Labor Union (Chairperson Jeong Seong-hye) requested the Local Personnel System Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to revise the local public officials personnel system operation guidelines so that appointing authorities can only change the type of work within the weekly working hours when amending the guidelines.

For national time-selective hired public officials, the Ministry of Personnel Management newly established a provision in Article 95, Paragraph 4, latter part of the Public Officials Appointment Rules stating, "If deemed necessary for personnel management, working hours or work type may be changed according to the timing set by each institution considering personnel operation conditions." However, this has led to frequent abuses, such as appointing authorities forcibly changing working hours during childcare leave periods, causing financial difficulties, which undermines the very concept of time-selective public officials.

In the case of the Local Personnel System Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, on April 6, 2022, the local public officials personnel system operation guidelines were fully revised to amend Article 81, Paragraph 1 of the same law to state, "When a time-selective hired public official requests a change in working hours, (omitted) the appointing authority may permit time-selective work considering the institution’s personnel operation conditions," thereby granting the individual the right to apply for changes in working hours.

Jeong Seong-hye, Chairperson of the Time-Selective Labor Union, said, “Upon hearing that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety planned to revise the local public officials personnel system operation guidelines to allow appointing authorities to arbitrarily change working hours, similar to the Public Officials Appointment Rules, I urgently requested a meeting. While I accept that appointing authorities can change the type of work within the weekly working hours, allowing changes to the range of working hours would cause financial difficulties due to salary reductions or discrimination due to proportional application of working hours for promotion periods. Article 95, Paragraph 4 of the Public Officials Appointment Rules infringes on constitutional rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Korea as of April 15, including the right to self-determination (Article 10), equality (Article 11), the right to hold public office (Article 25), and the right to a humane life (Article 34, Paragraph 1). We have filed a constitutional complaint on this basis. We hope the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will actively review and reflect the constitutionally guaranteed right to a humane life.”

In response, an official from the Local Personnel System Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said, “Since 2022, I have participated as a panelist in National Assembly forums related to improvements in the time-selective system, hearing firsthand about cases of forced changes in working hours and the voices from the field, which was regrettable. To prevent forced changes in working hours against the will of the individual in the field, we will improve the system so that appointing authorities only change the type of work and will promote reasonable revisions to prevent financial difficulties caused by reduced working hours.”