Hyper-wired South Korea is considering legislation that would ban bosses from bothering their staff at home, after growing complaints about the country’s already onerous work-life imbalance.
A bill prohibiting managers from badgering staff at home was submitted to parliament on Wednesday, sponsored by 12 lawmakers from the main opposition Minjoo party.
“As more firms use social media or mobile messengers to send work orders, regardless of time, the stress inflicted on workers has reached a serious level,” they said in a statement.
The bill seeks to ban firms from sending employees work-related messages by telephone, text, social media or via mobile messaging apps after official working hours. The document specially references Kaka-oTalk, a chat app used by around 80 percent of the South Korean population.
The MPs’ statement noted that too many workers were expected to be constantly on call, even when on holiday or late at night. “More people are demanding rights to disconnect after work hours,” it said, adding that the bill would allow workers a personal life free of workplace intrusion. Similar legislation prohibiting e-mails after regular work hours has been proposed in countries such as France and Germany. More than 80 percent of South Koreans have smartphones — one of the highest penetration rates in the world.
Couple that with the country‘s notorious work-aholic corporate culture, and you have a system ripe for abuse, the MPs say. In 2014, the average South Korean worker clocked up 2,124 working hours — the second-highest total among OECD member nations after Mexico and far higher than the average of 1,770 hours.
