Lee Jae-myung Implements Nation's First "Gyeonggi Province Non-regular Worker Fair Allowance"

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun] The "Gyeonggi Province Non-regular Worker Fair Allowance," a non-regular worker treatment improvement measure and compensation system for employment instability in the 7th elected term of Gyeonggi Province, will begin full implementation starting January of this year.

The "Gyeonggi Province Non-regular Worker Fair Allowance" is a policy first introduced nationwide by the 7th elected term Gyeonggi Province government in accordance with Governor Lee Jae-myung's policy commitment, stating "It is double discrimination for workers with unstable employment to earn less in compensation" and "At least in the public sector, non-regular workers should receive higher compensation than regular workers, and the shorter the employment period among non-regular workers, the higher the compensation should be."

The key aspect of the policy is to provide fixed-term workers who are non-regular workers at Gyeonggi Province and provincial public institutions with "compensation allowance" proportional to employment instability such as length of service, distributed at a differential rate of a minimum 5% to a maximum 10% of base salary.

This year's support targets are 1,007 fixed-term workers under Gyeonggi Province and 785 from public institutions, totaling 1,792 workers. Workers hired in 2021 as well as those hired last year and working through this year are included. For this, approximately 1.8 billion won in budget has been allocated this year.

Looking specifically at the payment amount per person, fixed-term workers with a service period of 2 months or less will receive approximately 337,000 won with a 10% application rate, those with 4 months or less will receive approximately 707,000 won with a 9% application rate, and those with 6 months or less will receive approximately 988,000 won as compensation allowance with an 8% application rate.

Those with 8 months or less will be paid 1,179,000 won with approximately 7% applied, those with 10 months or less will receive 1,280,000 won with approximately 6% applied, and fixed-term workers with 12 months of service will be paid 1,291,000 won with approximately 5% applied.

Payment will be made as a lump sum upon expiration of the contract period. However, for workers hired last year, the policy is to provide compensation allowance for the period from January 1, 2021 to the end of the contract.

Previously, the province referenced France's unstable employment compensation allowance, Spain's employment contract termination allowance, and Australia's additional wage system in designing the fair allowance, and reflected survey results conducted on residents of the Seoul metropolitan area and provincial civil workers.

In fact, France provides 10% of total wages as compensation for employment instability, Australia provides 15~30%, and Spain provides approximately 5% in additional wages.

In the survey results, 76.5% of Seoul metropolitan area residents and 87.2% of provincial civil workers responded that a fair allowance is necessary, and in assessing the value of employment stability, Seoul metropolitan area residents valued it at 8.6% of salary and provincial civil workers valued it at 14.83%.

To ensure smooth implementation of the system, the province finalized "Gyeonggi Province Non-regular Worker Fair Allowance Detailed Operating Guidelines" by reflecting opinions from public institutions and distributed them to each department of Gyeonggi Province and public institutions for application.

Kim Gyou-sik, Director of the Gyeonggi Province Labor Bureau, stated "This introduction of the system will be an opportunity to promote livelihood and employment stability for non-regular workers" and added "We will do our best to realize a fair world where labor is respected so that the leading and successful implementation in the public sector can spread to the private sector and other institutions."