Gyeonggi Province: "Criminal History Checks for Social Welfare Facility Workers Should Continue After Hiring"

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Gyeonggi Province is promoting system improvements to strengthen the safety of social welfare facility users.

Unlike elder abuse and sexual crimes, criminal history checks for general crimes are conducted only at the time of hiring, making post-hire employee management vulnerable.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 8th that it plans to propose to the Ministry of Health and Welfare the establishment of various legal grounds, including creating a manual to conduct criminal history checks on social welfare facility directors and workers at intervals of no more than three years at minimum and to clarify the check methods.

According to the 'Social Welfare Business Act' and other regulations, social welfare facilities apply disqualification reasons (criminal history) for facility directors and workers only at the time of hiring. After hiring, there are no separate regulations, making regular checks impossible.

According to the current 'Elderly Welfare Act' and 'Persons with Disabilities Welfare Act,' criminal histories related to 'elder abuse' and 'sexual crimes' at facilities for persons with disabilities are investigated annually, but general criminal histories are checked only at the point of hiring.

The province's assessment is that when sentences become finalized after hiring or when general criminal history occurs while working, the grounds to identify the fact and respond appropriately are insufficient.

Accordingly, the province will pursue system improvements while instructing cities and counties to conduct thorough criminal history checks when hiring facility directors and workers at social welfare facilities.

Additionally, from February 17 to March 17, the province conducted a full survey over four weeks jointly with 31 cities and counties on whether criminal history checks were conducted when hiring directors and workers at 2,942 social welfare facilities including elderly welfare facilities, facilities for persons with disabilities, social welfare centers, homeless shelters, and self-sufficiency regional centers throughout the province.

As a result, 43 elderly welfare facilities in 4 cities were found not to have conducted criminal history checks. Accordingly, criminal history checks were conducted on the workers of those facilities, and it was confirmed that the individuals had no criminal history.

The remaining 27 cities and counties conducted criminal history checks normally at the time of hiring.

Lee Byeong-woo, Director of the Welfare Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, said, "Since the criminal histories of facility directors and workers at social welfare facilities are directly related to user safety issues depending on the type of crime, it is desirable to apply stricter social and moral standards. We hope that this system improvement proposal will be smoothly accepted and the environment at social welfare facilities will become safer and more sound."