Four government-funded research institutes under the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) have not revised related rules despite an expansion of statutory parental leave, it has emerged.

According to human resources, employment and severance-pay rules for 23 institutes submitted by NST to Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Jung-a (황정아) of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, the expansion of statutory parental leave was not reflected at four institutions: the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, the Korea Institute of Energy Research and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

With the enforcement of amendments to the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act in February last year, eligible employees can use parental leave for up to 1 year and 6 months. Statutory parental leave must be included in length of service, but these institutes kept existing rules for more than 1 year and 7 months after the law took effect.

KIST, in particular, added a proviso to its severance pay regulations in August 2015 stating that men’s parental leave is included in length of service only up to 1 year, and it has not deleted it. KIST changed its rules under a 2019 joint collective agreement to recognise up to 3 years of parental leave as length of service. It left the existing clause in its severance pay regulations. As a result, even if both take 3 years of parental leave under the rules, men could face disadvantageous treatment compared with women in severance-pay calculations.

KIST acknowledged that the clause could conflict with the intent of the expanded statutory parental leave and could also run counter to the principle of equal treatment under the Labor Standards Act. The Ministry of Employment and Labor also said that if disadvantages occurred in wages, welfare benefits or promotions because length-of-service calculation standards differed by gender without a reasonable reason, it could amount to gender discrimination in employment.

Similar problems were found at other institutes. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources applied different recognised periods of parental leave in its career score guidelines: 1 year for a first child, 2 years for a second child and 3 years from the third child. Even if a parent used the statutory 1 year and 6 months of parental leave for a first child, 6 months would not be reflected in the career score.

The Korea Institute of Energy Research also included only the first 1 year of parental leave in length of service under its employment rules. It revised the rules in September but did not reflect the expanded statutory parental leave period. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute recognised up to 1 year and 6 months as length of service in practice under career score standards, but kept a clause in its severance pay rules recognising only the first 1 year per child.

The four institutes decided to move to overhaul the relevant rules. KIST plans to delete discriminatory clauses related to men’s parental leave by the end of December this year, recognise additional length of service for existing parental-leave users and retroactively pay the employer portion of retirement pension contributions.

The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources and the Korea Institute of Energy Research also decided to revise their rules within the year and investigate affected people for retroactive application. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute said it would revise the relevant rules immediately.

Hwang said leaving rules unattended for more than 1 year and 7 months after the law changed was no different from cutting researchers’ rights for institutional convenience. She said NST should re-examine length-of-service, career and pay rules across the 23 institutes and improve them to eliminate discrimination by gender and by number of children.