“Personal Assistance Service should also be provided to Civil Servants with Severe Disabilities”
- The NHRCK recommends on the policy for the works of civil servants with severe disabilities -
o The National Human Rights Commission of Korea(Chairperson Hyun Byung-Chul) delivered a "Policy Recommendation on the Exclusion of Civil Servants with Severe Disabilities during the Provision of Personal Assistance Services" to the Minister of Security and Public Administration on 2014. 2. 3(Tue), calling for provision of personal assistance services to civil servants with severe disabilities to efficiently carry out their duties.
1. Establish clear provisions on providing assistance, such as personal assistance services, to civil servants with severe disabilities in legislations related to the matters of civil servants including the National Civil Service Act and the Executive Order on the Employment of Civil Servants.
2. Central administration departments and local governments should design and implement specific measures to provide personal assistance services to civil servants with severe disabilities.
o The Ministry of Employment and Labor currently operates personal assistance services in accordance with the Act on Employment Promotion and Vocational Rehabilitation for Disabled Persons. This service provides personal assistance services, 172 hours maximum per month, to complementary, not main, duties of employees with severe disabilities who meet certain requirements.
o However, the Ministry of Employment and Labor does not provide personal assistance services to civil servants with severe disabilities because they do not qualify as "workers" according to the definition provided by the Labor Standards Act.
o The Ministry of Security and Public Administration, in charge of employment, promotion, and welfare of civil servants, has certain provisions in the "Guidelines on Balanced Human Resources" and "Manual on Human Resource Management of Civil Servants with Disabilities" that provides accommodation to civil servants with disabilities. However, awareness on these provisions are severely low due to the lack of active promotion in each central administration agencies and local governments. Also, implementation of such services in practice is difficult due to lack of specific standards on the budget, provision boundaries, and qualifications of personal assistants.
o Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Korea became a party in 2008 calls on states to "ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities in the workplace," and Article 11 of the Anti-Discrimination against and Remedies for Persons with Disabilities Act specifies "assistants" as one of the accommodations that should be provided to disabled workers.
o However, many civil servants with severe disabilities are unaware of personal assistance services or in a difficult position to request for such services. If services are not provided despite such requests, it is tantamount to the act of discrimination against persons with disabilities by denying reasonable accommodations, thereby violating the Anti-Discrimination against and Remedies for Persons with Disabilities Act.
o The NHRCK recognized the need to elaborate on specific measures and legislative provisions to duly provide personal assistance services to civil servants with severe disabilities in need of such assistance.
