"Going to Work Despite the Flu"... The Reality of Office Workers Unable to Take Paid Sick Leave

Survey of 1,000 Office Workers by Workplace Gapjil 119
49% of Workers with the Flu Say "Unable to Take Leave"

A recent survey by a civic group found that 4 out of 10 office workers are unable to take paid sick leave even when they are ill.

The civic group Workplace Gapjil 119 announced on May 25 that it had commissioned Global Research, a polling agency, to conduct an online survey of 1,000 office workers aged 19 and older nationwide from February 10 to 17. The survey was conducted with a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points.

Among respondents, 38.4% answered "No" to the question, "Can you take paid sick leave when you are sick?" This response rate was higher among employees of private companies, smaller companies, and those with lower wages. The rate was also higher among women (50.3%), non-regular workers (45.3%), non-union members (40.8%), and non-office workers (48%). More than 8 out of 10 (83.5%) government employees and public institution workers said they could take paid sick leave when ill. However, among employees of private companies with fewer than 5 workers, only 53.2% gave the same response, showing a gap of about 30 percentage points. While 78% of union members had access to paid sick leave, the rate was only 57.5% at workplaces without a union.

Among respondents, 280 people said they had contracted an infectious disease such as the flu in the past year. Of these, about half (48.9%) said they were unable to take leave at the time. The proportion of workers who could not take leave despite contracting an infectious disease was even higher among non-regular workers (58.6%), non-union members (52.5%), non-office workers (56.9%), and entry-level employees (60.8%).

The vast majority of respondents (80.6%) supported the full introduction of sickness benefits. Sickness benefits are a system that compensates workers for lost income so they can focus on treatment when unable to work due to injuries or illnesses unrelated to their job. Currently, this system is being piloted in some local governments.

Choi Hyein, a labor attorney at Workplace Gapjil 119, emphasized, "We need a society where it's okay to take a day off when you're sick, and where the right to rest when ill is guaranteed to everyone without discrimination." She added, "Paid sick leave and sickness benefits must be institutionally guaranteed so that labor conditions do not have an unequal impact on health."