Lee Byeong-gweon, the second vice minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said on the 15th that he would build a social safety net, including substitute workforce support, to prepare for situations in which small business owners are unavoidably forced to suspend operations due to childcare, illness, or family care.
The Vice Minister held a roundtable on building a safety net for the continuity of small business operations at RTR Lounge in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on this day, listened to on-site small business owners' difficulties related to business suspension, and discussed practical support measures.
The roundtable was attended by small business owners who have experienced or are considering suspension of operations due to childbirth and childcare, illness and injury, or family care, as well as experts in childcare, labor, and welfare and officials from related organizations.
One-person small business owners and family-run store operators said that even when unforeseen situations such as childbirth or childcare, injury, or family care arise, it is effectively difficult to suspend operations because there is no one to run the store in their place. In particular, they noted that small business owners are in a blind spot of institutional protection such as parental leave and proposed that, referring to cases in major countries overseas, Korea should establish a system that substantively guarantees the right to suspend operations, including support for substitute workers.
Choi Ji-eun, a researcher at the Seoul Institute, mentioned the nighttime and weekend child care service currently operated by the Seoul metropolitan government for small business owners and proposed, "There is a need to build a care safety net by expanding this nationwide so that the care burden on small business owners is reduced and they can continue operations stably."
Participants stressed that suspension of operations by small business owners should be approached as a matter of the social safety net rather than a personal choice or private issue. They also agreed that an institutional support system should be established to prevent temporary crises from leading to permanent closures.
Lee Byeong-gweon, the Vice Minister, said, "We will prepare effective support measures, including support for substitute workers, to ensure that small business owners' temporary crises do not lead to closures, and we will build a dense social safety net that guarantees small business owners' right to suspend operations and to rest."