Public Servants Express Frustration over Deployment to Cherry Blossom Festival

A street packed with visitors in Jinhae during the Jinhae Gunhangje Festival in 2019. (Yonhap)

CHANGWON, March 22 (Korea Bizwire) — With the imminent start of the Jinhae Gunhangje in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, local government employees in charge of operating the festival are expressing frustration.

Jinhae Gunhangje, or the Jinhae Naval Port Festival, is held annually for about 10 days in early April in Jinhae Ward in Changwon amid the gorgeous cherry blossoms.

Some 2,200 public servants will be deployed to the festival, running from April 3-13 for safety and festival management.

The civil servants, tasked with other duties at other times, are in principle deployed to the festival for one day only, with working hours set from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., or from 1 p.m.-10 p.m.

The frustration is largely attributed to the “free labor” they have to provide during the festival, due to the fact that they cannot receive more than four hours of overtime pay on the weekend.

What’s more, festival duties add to the heavy workload they have to bear.

They also need to commute to the festival site, which is far less convenient.

Changwon Mayor Hong Nam-pyo ordered city officials to look into the possibility of allowing special leave of absence to employees deployed to the festival.

“Safety management has become a top priority ever since the Itaewon stampede. Mobilizing employees, therefore, is inevitable to a certain extent,” said an official at the Changwon city government.

M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)