Five Day Work System to Come into Test Operation from Next Month.

`Five day weekly work system` for officials is expected to come into operation as a model.

Lee Geun-Sik, minister of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGH) stated in a new year report to President Kim Dae Jung on 11th, saying, “weekly 5 day working system will operate as a model in administrative organizations in May, without getting perturbed by negotiations with committee of labor unions, and company and government, in order to induce induction of weekly 5 days working system to civil and grasp merits and demerits following Saturday as holiday.”

MOGH is supposed to decide time for operation, organization and method, etc, soon.

However it will be carried out only once in a month, dividing staff in half, to minimize inconvenience to people in connection with Saturday as off day and organizations close to civil life, such as police stations, fire stations and campus etc will be excluded from the aforesaid subject.

Organizations for public welfare like village office, post office, and civil affairs office, etc will operate `joint office on off-Saturday¡° and appoint multiple persons in charge for civil affairs until the system settles down.

Besides, MOGH will induce official labor unions, naming them `official group` or `official union` before this and subject of participation will be limited to below 6 grade officials except management designation.

Organizing these groups will also be allowed like in case of national labor union, national office officials can join and in case of local union, metropolitan city and state officials can join.

However, giving rights for negotiating work conditions like salary is under progress.

On the other hand, MOGH is suppose to arrange `optional welfare system`, so that if government supports welfare budget to individual for the sake of promoting official`s welfare, officials can choose some among welfare categories such as life insurance, child care, self-development, health care, and leisure life.

MOGH will operate this in three organizations such as Civil Service Commission, Ministry of Planning and Budget and police stations as soon as result of research gets disclosed in June.

Besides MOGH is discussing measures to charge 10 percent tax on income of casino, a dead mine area in Kangwon for local development and to charge certain rate of tax for local development to Atomic power plant in Yongnam district, in order to reinforce local tax.

Hoon Lee dreamland@donga.com