JAKARTA - Indonesian women smile when they can get a six-month leave when giving birth. But in South Korea, there is a discourse on providing maternity leave to 18 months.
Sebelumnya Korea Selatan sudah memiliki aturan masa cuti melahirkan bagi orang tua yang bekerja sebanyak satu tahun alias 12 bulan. Namun saat ini sedang digodok menjadi satu tahun enam bulan, kata kementerian tenaga kerja, Senin 9 Januari.
The Ministry of Manpower also said it plans to increase the quota of foreign workers with non-professional work visas this year to reduce labor shortages due to the pandemic.
The plan was included in the report of the Minister of Manpower Lee Jeong-sik to President Yoon Suk Yeol about his ministry's work plan for this year as quoted by Yonhap News.
First, the government encourages to guarantee maternity leave of up to 18 months for every parent when both work.
The plan is the government's effort to encourage more couples to seek maternity leave or paternity leave to address the country's very low birth rate, officials said.
Also, the labor ministry has decided to issue an E-9 visa to an annual record high of 110,000 foreign workers this year.
The decision was made because industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor experience labor shortages amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and increased border controls.
The government also plans to revise the relevant laws so that foreign workers can stay for more than 10 years without going through the departure and re-entry process to ensure their skills.
The Ministry of Manpower will also encourage policies to reduce deaths or injuries caused in the workplace by forcing companies to adopt risk assessment systems.
Starting this year, the government plans to force companies with 300 employees or more to adopt the system and develop it further to small companies with five employees or more by 2025.
The government will review whether such a system is run properly in case of death or injury in the workplace, officials said.
Also, the labor ministry plans to launch a committee by the end of this month to discuss steps to reset its performance-centered wage system.
The committee will consist of personnel managers, workers, labor legal experts or labor management relations, and government officials.
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