This April 20, 2020 photo shows an elementary school student taking online class with the help of his mother at their home in the central Seoul ward of Yongsan. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The National Assembly passed a bill to extend the family care leave of absence for employees up to 25 days Monday as the country struggles to fight a resurgence of new coronavirus infections.
The assembly’s plenary session approved the bill to revise the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act, allowing the extension of the unpaid family care leave, currently given for 10 days.
The revised law gives power to the labor minister to extend the leave to 20 days for general employees and 25 days for single parents who take time off from work to care for sick family members or children, under an emergency situation such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The current up-to-10-day family care leave went into effect at the beginning of the year, but calls for its extension have been growing as schools and day care centers suspended operations due to the pandemic.
“As this is an urgent situation, (I) will (evoke the power) to review the extension of the family care leave through prompt procedures,” Labor Minister Lee Jae-kap noted.
(Yonhap)
