Ministry of Employment and Labor-Seoul Metropolitan Government to deploy 100 people starting in September
For children under 12 years old – families expecting to have children
Choose from 4-6-8 hours… 20% cheaper than private sector
Fluent in English and Korean and have official qualifications… Government “Plan to expand to 1,200 people next year”
100 Filipino domestic helpers who can communicate in English and Korean will arrive in Korea next month and begin working in Korean homes starting in September. The aim is to support work-family balance by increasing the supply of professional care workers like Singapore, and the government plans to expand the scale to 1,200 next year after this pilot project.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 16th that they will be accepting applications from households wishing to use a Philippine housekeeper from the 17th to the 6th of next month. Any household in Seoul with a child under 12 years old or a pregnant woman who is expecting to give birth can apply. Since it is a pilot project, the scale is not large, so if there is a lot of demand, priority will be given to single-parent, multi-child, and dual-income households.
The domestic helpers selected locally in the Philippines are women aged 24 to 38 who have Philippine government-approved qualifications. In Korea, they are employed by government-approved service providers ‘Housekeeper’ and ‘Care Plus’, and they stay in their accommodations and commute to individual homes. They will provide childcare and domestic services for six months until the end of February next year.
The housekeepers will enter Korea next month, receive four weeks of training on Korean culture and industrial safety, and be assigned to each home in early September. An official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor explained, “They received more than 780 hours of training locally on child care support, cleaning and laundry, and meal preparation. They also underwent Korean and English language proficiency assessments, health checks, and criminal background checks.”
If you want to use the service, you can sign up for membership on the Housewife and Care Plus apps on your smartphone and apply. You can use it part-time for 4 or 6 hours a day or full-time for 8 hours. It is only available between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
The usage fee is approximately 1.19 million won per month for 4 hours a day and 2.38 million won for 8 hours. This is the amount that reflects the minimum wage of 9,860 won per hour and the four major insurance premiums. The Seoul Metropolitan Government explained, “It is currently 9.2% cheaper than public child care and 20% cheaper than the average private housekeeper.” The usage fee will increase slightly starting in January next year when the minimum wage increases.
The government has been promoting this project as a means to replace the decreasing number of domestic care workers. The number of domestic workers in Korea was approximately 105,000 last year, and has decreased by an average of 13,000 per year over the past four years. Kim Seon-soon, the director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Office, said, “This will be a new option for families who have had career breaks or are having difficulty raising children.” The government plans to bring in an additional 1,200 people in the first half of next year for this project.
However, there are also observations that demand may not be as high as expected, as full-time use costs about 2.38 million won. There are also concerns that housekeepers may suffer from excessive workload, as their work includes not only child care but also housework.
Some argue that the minimum wage should be applied differentially to lower the usage fee, but this year’s Minimum Wage Committee did not discuss differential application to the care industry. The Ministry of Justice separately plans to promote a pilot project to allow foreign students, spouses of foreign workers, etc. to work in domestic care services. This is in consideration of the fact that individual households may be exempt from the minimum wage if they sign a private contract and hire someone.
Reporter Joo Ae-jin jaj@donga.com
Reporter Jeon Hye-jin sunrise@donga.com
Source: www.donga.com
