Yongin City Launches 'Childcare Work Substitution Allowance' to Compensate Acting Officials

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Choi Gi-ho] Yongin Special City announced on the 23rd that it will newly establish and operate the 'Childcare Work Substitution Allowance,' the first among local governments in Gyeonggi Province.

Yongin's 'Childcare Work Substitution Allowance' is a complementary measure following the July of last year's revision of the 'Local Civil Service Conduct Regulations,' which expanded the pool of eligible childcare time users.

The city created the allowance to address the problem that while the scope of childcare time usage has expanded, there is insufficient compensation for work substitution officials who fill the operational gap.

The city focused on the increased workload and importance of childcare work substitution officials' roles and utilized special provisions in the 'Guidelines for Handling Local Civil Service Compensation and Other Matters' that allow autonomous operation of important duty grades, thereby establishing regulations to provide allowances to childcare work substitution officials.

Important duty grades are allowances provided to motivate and compensate employees with heavy workloads relative to their lower salaries. The city decided to provide 519 employees of grade 6 and below with 100,000 won per month in allowances.

Additionally, the city newly established a system to provide 50,000 won per month in allowances for those conducting work substitution for 10 or more hours of childcare per month (including maternity protection hours) within the budget limit for important duty grade allowances. The city plans to tally childcare work substitution records from April and begin providing allowances from May.

Mayor Lee Sang-il stated, "Following last year's revision of the 'Local Civil Service Conduct Regulations,' the age and duration of childcare time usage were expanded, increasing the burden on work substitution officials, but since there was no system to compensate for this, we established the work substitution allowance," and added, "The childcare work substitution allowance will become a system where civil servants raising children can use their childcare time with peace of mind, and work substitution officials receive appropriate compensation, allowing both work and family life to be satisfactory."

Mayor Lee also stated, "We expect the important duty grade allowance, which is being implemented for the first time in Yongin, to serve as a compensation system for employees performing difficult and important work, and to become a system for motivating and boosting employee morale."