At present, family care leave is allowed only for parents, spouses, children and parents of spouse. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — Both parents will be allowed to take childcare leave at the same time for the same child, beginning early next year, when a revision of a relevant law goes into effect, government officials said Tuesday.
The Cabinet meeting approved a revision of Enforcement Decree of the Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation in the morning. The revision which will take effect on Feb. 28.
The current enforcement decree of the equal employment act bans employee-parents from taking childcare leave for the same child at the same time.
But the prohibition clause was deleted from the revised enforcement decree, permitting both parents to take care of their child at home in the same period.
Under the revised law, childcare allowances will be paid to both parents.
The revised enforcement decree will also introduce family care leave from Jan. 1, allowing employees to take up to 10 days of leave per year due to family illness, accidents, old age or rearing of children.
Employees wanting to take family care leave are required to present their employers with documents that contain names and birth dates of family members in need of care.
Use of family care leave to take care of grandparents and grandchildren will also be possible from next year.
At present, family care leave is allowed only for parents, spouses, children and parents of spouse.
In addition, employees will be able to ask employers to curtail their working hours for reasons of family care, health recovery, retirement preparations and academic achievement under a revision of the equal employment act approved in August.
The revised law on working hour reduction will be first applied to public institutions and workplaces with more than 300 employees in 2020 before being gradually expanded to all workplaces by 2022.
(Yonhap)
