IT firms moving to allow workers to have 9-day holiday next week

By a2016032

Published : Apr 25, 2017 - 12:45 Updated : Apr 25, 2017 - 12:45

South Korea's major information technology (IT) firms are encouraging employees to take the two workdays interspersed with public holidays next week so they could enjoy upwards of a nine-day holiday, industry sources said Tuesday.

The move comes amid growing calls for reducing overall work hours. On average a South Korean spent 2,113 hours annually at work compared to 1,766 hours which is the number for member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2015.

(Yonhap)

Next week has two public holidays, Buddha's Birthday on Wednesday and Children's Day on Friday. Labor Day on Monday is not an official holiday but many people do take the day off.

SK C＆C, an affiliate of SK Group specializing in cloud computing, big data and IoT platforms, has decided to allow employees to have two more days off this year, aside from the annual paid holiday, a company official said, adding the employees are encouraged to use two additional holidays next week.

Kakao Games Corp., a game company affiliated with Kakao Corp. operating mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has notified all of its employees to take two days off next week.

NC Soft, an online game developer, has also recommended all of its workers to apply for a leave next Thursday to allow them a five-day vacation.

Employees at SK Telecom, KT and LG UPlus are pushing to get their employees to take turns taking leave next week so many can enjoy some extended time off.

Naver Corp., the operator of South Korea's dominant Internet portal, said it has authorized employees who want to take nine days off to do so. (Yonhap)