l POSCO establishes a ‘working-from-home system for child care without career breaks’ for the first time in Korea
l POSCO proposes a POSCO-type role model to resolve the low birth rate issue and plans to hold a symposium related to this in July
POSCO becomes the first Korean company to apply a working-from-home for child care without career breaks.
The newly established system enables working parents to focus on both their work and childcare at the same time, thus, encouraging childbirth and preventing career breaks of employees. POSCO will receive applications from prospective employees and put the policy into full practice from July.
POSCO employees with children under the age of eight are eligible for the system. Depending on employees’ working conditions, they can apply for full-day (8 hours) or half-day (4 hours) working-from-home.
Employees applying for the full-day working-from-home system will have the same working hours — from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — as other employees and will receive the same salary as well.
The half-day system is a combined system that includes the ‘system of working reduced hours during the child-rearing period’ of the government and POSCO’s ‘system of flexible working hours.’ Employees can choose their working hours according to the parenting environment from the following options: 8 to 12, 10 to 15, and 13 to 17.
POSCO employees can utilize this system for up to two years, whereas, in the case of the half-day system that adopts the government’s system, the policy is valid for a maximum of two years per child and combined with parental leave.
For example, an employee with one child can work from home for a maximum of four years: 1) full-day system or half-day system (with POSCO’s ‘system of flexible working hours’) for two years and 2) half-day system (with the government’s ‘system of working reduced hours during the child-rearing period’) for another two years. In the case of employees with two children, the system can be utilized for up to six years.
POSCO is to provide the employees who work from home with the same salary, welfare, and promotion system as those working in the offices. The company hopes that this new system will help relieve the worries of employees concerned about parental leave due to multiple reasons. POSCO plans to expand the system to its group companies.
Since 2017, POSCO has been operating a POSCO-type childbirth promotion policy to encourage employees to have children and to support their parenting. Employees can use up to 10 days of leave for infertility treatment, including artificial insemination procedures. The company expanded its maternity benefit to 1 million KRW for the firstborn child and 5 million KRW from the second. POSCO has also established shared daycare centers in Pohang and Gwangyang for the children of POSCO employees and partner companies.
Presenting a role model to resolve low birth rate issues has been one of the six major corporate citizenship projects of POSCO. The project focuses on enhancing the quality of life of employees, as well as resolve the social issue of the country’s declining birthrate. In partnership with a related association, POSCO will hold a symposium regarding this issue. Due to the COVID-19, the event will be broadcasted live on the Corporate Citizenship website (corporatecitizenship.posco.com) and YouTube.