District Offices Actively Protect Employees from Malicious Complaints
Guro-gu operates a happiness recharge healing program for civil service response staff. Provided by Guro-gu.
As the number of public officials experiencing extreme choices or mental illnesses such as depression increases, autonomous districts in Seoul are becoming more proactive in operating employee protection programs. Stress from malicious civil complaints significantly impacts mental illnesses, including public official suicides and depression.
According to the ‘Number of Work-Related Injury Approvals’ (based on 2022) released last month by the Ministry of Personnel Management, the number of public officials receiving treatment for work-related illnesses showed that mental illnesses accounted for 274 cases, by far the highest. This figure is 11 times higher than that of industrial accident patients.
Seoul’s Dobong-gu recently established the ‘Protection and Support Plan for Civil Complaint Handling Public Officials’ to create a safe working environment from illegal acts such as verbal abuse and assault by civil petitioners. This plan includes sector-specific measures such as prevention and response to malicious complaints and employee protection measures.
As preventive measures, the district plans to sign a business agreement with the police station, conduct mock drills for emergency situations in civil service offices, install and operate a full recording system for work phones, and implement health hazard prevention measures for civil complaint response staff. For response and protection measures, active intervention by managers in case of malicious complaints, additional deployment of safety personnel at community service centers, expanded distribution of portable protective equipment within government buildings, and operation and management of closed-circuit television (CCTV) and emergency bells will be carried out.
Support and follow-up measures include personnel grievance counseling, personnel and service management actions, operation of employee psychological counseling support programs, medical expense support, and employee healing education.
Dobong-gu stated, “If a civil petitioner commits an illegal act, we will actively support the victimized public official’s complaint through a dedicated department and systematically engage in investigation and trial procedures.”
Guro-gu also announced that through an organizational restructuring to be implemented on the 15th of this month, it will establish an Organizational Culture Team within the General Affairs Division to serve as a command tower for comprehensive response to malicious complaints. Additionally, it plans to actively protect civil complaint officials by establishing a ‘Comprehensive Plan for Responding to Malicious Complaints’ for systematic response.
Eunpyeong-gu recently included a budget of 76 million KRW for deploying safety security officers at community service centers to protect both public officials and civil petitioners from malicious complaints, as part of an additional supplementary budget of 37.4 billion KRW.
Civil complaint officers at Gangnam-gu Office, who are conducting a mutual respect campaign, are wearing city shirts and smiling brightly. Provided by Gangnam-gu.
In the case of Gangnam-gu, separate from protection measures for civil complaint handling public officials, a mutual respect campaign between employees and civil petitioners is underway, where employees on the first floor of the district office wear ‘Poetry Shirts’ with beautiful phrases every Monday.
The ‘Wear Respect: Poetry Shirt’ campaign is conducted by 100 employees working in the civil service passport office, real estate information division, automobile civil affairs division, housing division, property tax division, and regional economy division on the first floor of the district office. The campaign aims to engrave warm phrases in the hearts of public officials and civil petitioners, serving as an opportunity to understand each other’s positions.
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