Gwangju Buk-gu Strengthens Protection for Civil Complaint Officers

Malicious Calls Limited to 20 Minutes · Meeting Time Restricted to 30 Minutes
Special Leave and Medical Expenses Support for Affected Public Officials
Comprehensive Measures Implemented with 24 Tasks Across 4 Major Areas

Gwangju Buk-gu District Office is preparing and implementing a joint comprehensive plan among related departments to protect public officials handling civil complaints.

On the 18th, Buk-gu, Gwangju announced that it has established the "Measures to Prevent Malicious Complaints and Strengthen Protection of Public Officials" to actively respond to the mental and physical damage suffered by officials due to illegal acts such as verbal abuse and assault by complainants.

The comprehensive plan, prepared based on the amendment of the Civil Complaints Handling Act scheduled for the second half of this year, consists of "four major areas" covering civil complaint work: ▲prevention of malicious complaints ▲response to complaints and protection of responsible public officials ▲improvement of administrative service quality ▲boosting public officials' morale, with "24 implementation tasks."

The main contents include reducing the telephone complaint termination standard from the current "30 minutes" to "20 minutes" to prevent malicious complaints, and installing a system that plays a "call termination notification tone" after 20 minutes. For in-person complaints, the consultation time is limited to "30 minutes," and a "reservation system" is introduced to prevent delays in processing for sincere complainants.

In particular, for responding to malicious complaints, a joint "solution team operation" among related departments and strengthened "roles and responsibilities of department heads" will be implemented to promote systematic and prompt legal responses. Special leave and medical expenses will be provided to affected public officials for psychological healing. Additionally, starting next year, the deployment of "safety personnel" at the Dong Administrative Welfare Centers will be expanded to provide stronger protection for civil complaint officials.

Furthermore, regular "capacity-building training" for new and civil complaint public officials will be conducted, "malicious complaint response manuals" will be distributed, and a "mutual respect civil complaint culture campaign" using the website and SNS will be launched to boost public officials' morale.

Moon In, the head of Buk-gu District Office, emphasized, "Public officials handling civil complaints on the front lines of administration are valuable individuals who deserve respect and protection," adding, "We will faithfully implement the comprehensive plan to protect public officials from malicious complaints and do our best to establish a proper culture of mutual respect between residents and public officials."

Meanwhile, last month, Buk-gu strengthened the cooperative system to protect civil complaint officials by signing a "One-Stop Response Agreement for Malicious Complaints" with the ▲Bukbu Police Station ▲Gwangju Branch of the Korea Legal Aid Corporation ▲Government Gwangju Complex Public Officials Mental Health Center to create a safe working environment.