Buyeo County Requested Written Pledge for Delinquency from Daycare Workers

Ordered Submission of Payment Plan for Collection of Overpaid Wages in Arrears

Buyeo County Office Building Exterior

Buyeo County in South Chungcheong Province is facing controversy after it was revealed that it had miscalculated the pay grades of public daycare center employees for several years, resulting in overpayment of wages.

The county has also drawn criticism for requiring the employees, rather than the daycare centers themselves, to submit local tax delinquency payment (installment) plans during the process of recovering the overpaid subsidies, leading to backlash from the affected staff.

According to an investigation by Asia Economy on the 18th, the county conducted an internal audit last August on vulnerable areas of public financial resources (pay grades of social welfare workers). The audit found that the pay grades of 14 daycare center employees, including cooks, had been miscalculated, resulting in a total overpayment of 48 million won in wages.

However, despite the fact that the subsidy recovery should have been directed at the daycare centers as the recipients of local government subsidies, the county notified the employees to return the funds and required them to submit local tax delinquency payment plans, which has been criticized as an act of administrative convenience.

There is even criticism that this move is intended to pave the way for civil lawsuits such as seizure in the event of non-payment of the overpaid wages, since there are no legal sanctions the county can impose if employees resign or refuse to return the funds.

Mr. A said, "The county determined my pay grade and salary, and I simply received what was given. How can they now demand I pay it back after several years? I have never defaulted on taxes or anything in my life, so I was shocked when they asked me to sign a tax delinquency agreement."

A county official stated, "There are no relevant regulations that allow us to recover subsidies directly from the employees, so we notified the daycare centers to return the funds. The local tax delinquency payment plan was used by mistake because we used a standard form from the finance department."