Workaholic South Korea will encourage its labour force to work less overtime in order to create more jobs and boost productivity and the dwindling birth rate, a top labour policy group said on Wednesday.
As of 2008 South Koreans worked 2,256 hours a year, the longest among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development where the average is 1,764 hours.
South Korea’s government-backed Economic and Social Development Commission plans to cut average annual work hours to less than 1,900 by 2020, said spokesman Kim Yang-Soo.
The commission will map out policies and launch a publicity campaign aimed at encouraging employees to leave their workplace earlier while improving productivity, the spokesman said.
“Long work hours result in low productivity, undermine job creation and contribute to a low birth rate, thus acting like a stumbling block to the country’s development,” the commission said in a statement.
The commission said the current system under which management can “buy” unused holidays should be replaced by one under which workers must use holiday time.
The spokesman said the commission would encourage job sharing and flexible work hours to create more jobs and encourage family time. “Female workers, for example, avoid getting married and having babies because of work burdens. Use of more part-timers to stand in for them would allow them more time for managing homes and caring for babies,” the spokesman said. South Korea’s birth rateremained near the world’s lowest at 1.19 in 2008.