This file photo shows City Hall in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — In the midst of the growing voices for the establishment of gender-equal organization culture, the Seoul city government plans to expand the number of night shifts offered to female civil servants.
At the Seoul Waterworks Authority, women will be encouraged to work the night shift.
Night shifts require workers to stay overnight at the office to cope with emergency situations. Thus far, most night shifts have been covered by men. This practice has been pointed out as reverse gender discrimination.
According to a survey conducted by the Seoul Waterworks Authority, men have worked night shifts at an interval of 18.2 days on average.
Such a short interval of time causes high fatigue and voids in work since employees, in general, take a day off working a night shift.
Previously, the city hall revised its rules on night shifts and emergency work in October 2018, removing the provision stipulating that women should be excluded from night duty.
From the year 2019, women started working night shifts, with complaints from men over reverse discrimination dropping significantly.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
