Arbor Day Won’t Be a Holiday Next Year

Starting next year, Arbor Day (April 5) will be excluded from the list of legal holidays. Constitution Day (July 17) is also expected to be removed from the list in 2008 when the five-day workweek will be applied to all businesses with at least 20 employees.

The government convened a coordination meeting for current national issues on March 2 at the Central Government Complex in Sejong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, and drew up the policy under the principle that it would reduce the number of holidays by about two days because the five-day workweek will be adopted by the government and public offices starting in July.

The government is planning to finalize the issue of adjusting the number of holidays after consultation with the National Assembly and Heon Jeong Hoe, an association of retired politicians. Meanwhile, the number of special holidays of public officials will be reduced as well.

The government will decrease the amount of parental bereavement leave it gives from seven days to five days, and cutting the amount of child bereavement leave from three days to two days. Also, the five-day holiday for death of one’s great-grand parents and grand parents on both the father and mother’s sides will be abolished.

In addition, special holidays for female workers will be changed to unpaid holidays, while maternity leave (90 days), holidays for marriage (seven days) and holidays for pregnancy tests (one day) will remain unchanged.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com