Pregnant Employees Get 'Weekly Days Off' and Double Incentives for Deputies... Drastically Improved Welfare in Gyeonggi-do

Gyeonggi Province will grant one day off to pregnant employees and strengthen incentives for their substitutes to address low birth rates and create a child-friendly work environment.

On the 24th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it will implement the "4·6·1 Childcare Support Work System Improvement Plan" containing these measures starting from the 25th.

The improvement plan was prepared following the directive of Governor Kim Dong-yeon of Gyeonggi Province to "significantly improve working conditions for pregnant public officials," regarding the "4·6·1 Childcare Support Work System" that has been in effect since May. The 4·6·1 system means working 4 days a week, 6 hours a day, and 1 day of telecommuting.

First, the improvement plan introduces a one-day-off system per week for pregnant employees. Under the existing system, pregnant employees could use 2 hours of maternity protection time to work 6 hours a day for 4 days a week and telecommute once a week. However, following the governor’s special leave directive to improve working conditions for pregnant employees, telecommuting days have been changed to days off to ensure rest.

Earlier in July, Gyeonggi Province expanded maternity protection leave for pregnant employees from 5 days to 20 days. Adding the 10 days of pregnancy checkup leave provided nationwide and 10 days of special leave from the governor, employees can use a total of 40 days of leave.

Gyeonggi Province considers the pregnancy period to be 40 weeks and allows one day off per week during this period. Through this improvement plan, about 400 pregnant employees, including firefighters and public workers affiliated with the province, are expected to benefit.

Incentives provided to substitutes for pregnant and childcare/caregiving public officials have also been significantly improved. Under the previous system, substitutes were given vacation points worth approximately 150,000 KRW or one day of special leave only after accumulating more than 160 hours of substitute work. However, the improvement plan reduces the required accumulated hours to 80 and doubles both the vacation points and special leave.

Gyeonggi Province plans to continue collecting and supplementing employees’ improvement suggestions related to the "4·6·1 Childcare Support Work System."