Under Construction: 4-Story Employee-Only Daycare
"As Expected, Seongsimdang"... Netizens Continue to Admire
Visitors queuing up to buy bread in front of Seongsimdang Main Store, a representative attraction of Daejeon. Photo by Heo Younghan
Daejeon's representative bakery 'Seongsimdang' is reportedly expanding a four-story building in Eunhaeng-dong, Jung-gu, Daejeon. The building is planned to be operated as Seongsimdang's workplace daycare center.
According to the construction permit sign for this building, the project name is 'Seongsimdang Workplace Daycare Expansion Construction,' and the building owner is 'Rosso Co., Ltd.' Rosso Co., Ltd. is the operating company of Seongsimdang. From the construction permit sign information, it can be confirmed that the building will serve as a daycare center exclusively for Seongsimdang employees. The daycare center is located about a 4-5 minute walk from Seongsimdang's main store, allowing employees to entrust their children with peace of mind.
According to the Infant Care Act, businesses employing 300 or more female workers regularly or 500 or more workers in total are required to establish workplace daycare centers. Seongsimdang also explained the reason for establishing the workplace daycare center in its January newsletter, stating, "Due to the continuous increase in Seongsimdang employees (300 or more female workers regularly), we intend to fulfill the obligation to install childcare facilities."
However, many companies do not comply with this law. Recently, a well-known retail company faced criticism after it was revealed that they ignored the installation obligation for seven years and ended up paying a fine of 800 million KRW. Seongsimdang stated, "We hope that establishing the workplace daycare center will improve the working environment and serve as a welfare benefit that attracts male and female professionals who have experienced career interruptions to Seongsimdang," impressing netizens.
Netizens also expressed strong reactions toward Seongsimdang, saying things like, "Even though it's mandatory to build daycare centers, some companies just pay fines and don't build them," "I want to work at Seongsimdang," "As expected, Seongsimdang class," "They must be making a lot of money; it's really grand," "Employee welfare is the best. The Seongsimdang CEO is cool," "Reading this makes me want to eat Seongsimdang bread," "Daejeon's greatest pride," "Make the Seongsimdang CEO the mayor of Daejeon," and "Are the snacks for the babies bread?"
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
