Gyeonggi-do to Automatically Record All Civil Complaint Calls Starting from the 18th

When calling the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office, callers will now be informed that the call will be recorded, similar to a general customer service center, and the conversation will be automatically recorded.

Gyeonggi Province announced that starting from the 18th, all calls within the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office will be automatically recorded to protect employees. The target locations include the Suwon Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office, Uijeongbu Northern Government Complex, and some affiliated institutions.

Previously, if recording was deemed necessary during the handling of civil complaints, the staff member had to manually press the recording button on the phone. However, from now on, when a civil complainant calls, a notification about the recording will be played before connecting to the staff member, and the entire conversation will be automatically recorded.

This measure was taken due to numerous cases where evidence of illegal acts by complainants, such as verbal abuse, could not be collected because the abusive remarks were not recorded.

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Following the amendment of the "Enforcement Decree of the Act on Civil Complaints Handling" on the 29th of last month, which allows the full recording of civil complaint calls, Gyeonggi Province decided to implement automatic recording to protect civil complaint handling staff by collecting evidence for legal action against malicious complainants.

The recent amendment also enables local governments to set recommended time limits for phone calls and face-to-face meetings.

To support staff suffering from long and repetitive complaints, Gyeonggi Province set the recommended time for each civil complaint call or meeting to "20 minutes." If the recommended time is exceeded, the complainant will be notified, and the call or meeting may be terminated.

Kim Chun-gi, Director of the Open Civil Complaints Office of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We hope this measure will alleviate some of the difficulties faced by provincial employees suffering from verbal abuse by malicious complainants. Efforts are needed to foster a culture of mutual understanding and respect between complainants and public officials. We will continue to strive to improve systems to protect civil complaint officials."