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Government likely to adjust cap on weekly working hours below 60
By Jun Ji-hye
While the government has been pushing to extend a mandatory 52-hour cap on the country's 40-hour basic workweek, a recent survey showed that people actually wish to work less than 40 hours per week.
The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) unveiled the results of its survey on work-life balance, Sunday, after interviewing 22,000 people aged between 19 and 59 from Sept. 20 to Oct. 7 last year.
The results showed that people wished to work 36.7 hours a week on average: regular employees wished to work 37.63 hours a week, while temporary and daily employed workers wished to work 32.36 hours a week.
The younger they were, the less time they wanted to spend working. Those aged between 19 and 29 wanted 34.92 hours, while those in their 30s wanted 36.32 hours. On the other hand, those in their 40s and 50s wanted 37.11 hours and 37.91 hours, respectively.
While the average daily break time, including meals, was tallied at 64.45 minutes, 40.1 percent of the respondents said their break times were insufficient.
"Working hours have consistently decreased following the spread of the culture respecting work-life balance, but laborers in Korea still work long hours," a KIHASA official said. "Considering working hours that people actually want, the government should continue to keenly monitor and manage working hours in the country."
The official added, "Break times should be thoroughly guaranteed as they are linked directly to workers' health and safety."
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The results of the survey came amid growing controversy over the Ministry of Employment and Labor's March 6 announcement of its plan to reform the country's workweek system.
Billing the plan as offering flexibility beyond the mandatory 52-hour cap on the workweek, introduced by the previous Moon Jae-in administration, the ministry said it is seeking to extend the maximum weekly work hours to 69 during times of heavy workload.
The ministry noted that workers will be granted longer vacations in return for overtime worked. But many labor and civic groups have raised doubts about this.
According to the KIHASA survey, workers were given 17 days of paid annual leave on average, but they were actually able to take only 11.63 days, leaving more than five days unused.
When asked why they were unable to use all of their annual leave, 18.3 percent said there were no sufficient replacements and 17.6 percent cited a heavy workload.
Twenty percent said they preferred to receive stipends for unused annual leave.
Amid intensifying controversies, President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered government officials last Tuesday to review the workweek reform proposal, saying the government should listen carefully to a variety of opinions from laborers, especially from younger generations, and review the proposed measures to see if any improvements are needed.
On Thursday, Yoon's office said the President viewed a workweek of more than 60 hours as "excessive," hinting at adjusting the cap on weekly working hours to 60 or lower.
