Public Servants to Take Two Saturday Off per Month

All public servants, except those involved in special sectors such as fire fighting and police training, are earnestly taking two Saturday off per month from next month until June 2005, when the five-day work week comes into effect for public sectors.

According to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, and other ministries, the revision resolution on the “regulation on service of public servants” was passed, stipulating such change, on last Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting which was presided over by President Roh Moo-hyun.

The revision bill stipulated that the shortening of one-hour service during winter, from November 1 to February 1, will be abolished and the days off will be reduced by one or two days according to period in which they are in office, in exchange for taking two Saturday off per month.

The government also decided to revise the Fair Trade Law, according to which voting rights of financial units within conglomerates will be reduced from the current 30 percent to 15 percent by cutting five percent per year for three year from April 2006.

In addition to it, by enacting a “special law for operation of foreign schools in free trade zone and international free city in Jeju,” the government decided to enable school principals to determine how many Korean students are allowed to enter into foreign schools in the international free city in Jeju and free trade zones such as Incheon.

Chi-Young Shin higgledy@donga.com