Going forward, even if civil servants work more than four hours of overtime in a day, they will be able to receive allowances for the full hours worked. This is because the Ministry of Personnel Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety decided to abolish the "one-day four-hour cap on overtime." Until now, even if they worked more than four hours a day, only four hours of allowances were paid.
This follows President Lee Jae-myung's instruction at the senior secretaries' meeting in Apr. to "recognize unavoidable overtime for the hours worked, but improve the practice of formal overtime." The Korea Government Employees' Union Federation (KGEU) criticized the reform plan in a statement as "the worst system that institutionalizes overwork."
That day, the Ministry of Personnel Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) gave advance notice of legislation for amendments to laws to improve how overtime allowances for civil servants are paid. The amendment abolishes the one-day overtime cap of four hours. However, the monthly cap for recognized overtime remains at 57 hours. If within the monthly limit of 57 hours, allowances will be paid for work that exceeds four hours in a day.
Currently, the monthly 57-hour overtime cap can be expanded to up to 100 hours a month when urgent issues require a response, but that limit will also be removed. The authority to approve overtime will be lowered from the head of the agency to the level of bureau or department heads. Choi Dong-seok, head of the Ministry of Personnel Management, said, "This is about improving the system so that civil servants receive fair compensation for the time they work."
However, the KGEU said in a statement that it is "the worst regression of the system, opening the way for civil servants to work longer and forcing them to compete internally for limited overtime allowances," criticizing it as "the institutionalization of overwork." It added, "Currently, overtime allowances for civil servants are not compensation for actual labor, but apply an unreasonable reduction rate that recognizes only 50–60% of the standard amount by rank," and said, "The reduction rate for overtime allowances must be abolished."