KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

A research on discrimination in personnel management

as using the parental leave and flexible working in government sector

 

Meekyung Moon
Boktae Kim
Taewook Huh

 

Parental leave and flexible work programs are deemed to be policies that have been crafted to effectively respond to changes in the labor force and perspectives on jobs in a low-fertility and aging society. In order to promote female labor force participation and work-life balance, the key policies of the incumbent government, this research study aimed to identify any discrimination in personnel management against those in public offices who use the aforementioned two systems, and to devise possible remedies.

According to the study results, the following policy suggestions have been made to allow government employees to benefit from parental leave and flexible work programs without any concerns about discrimination. First, to prevent telecommuters, remote workers and Parental leave users from suffering disadvantages in performance evaluation, related rules and regulations need to be revised, seeking ways to come up with differentiated assessment criteria. Second, leaders such as ministers and vice-ministers should actively accept and facilitate the systems to prevent the use of both programs from negatively affecting the appraisal of work performance and thereby to allow public officials to make the best use thereof in wider contexts. To this end, a diversity of flexible work programs should also be carried out. Third, substantial pay raises are required for parental leave users. Fourth, taking into account that most parental leave takers have significant fears about their jobs when they come back to work, effective retraining programs should be designed and extensively implemented.