Triple counting of class hours and expanded break-time pay… Commission for Social Grand Reform moves to improve treatment of university lecturers - 경향신문

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On the 12th, university lecturer Hwang (58) prepares for class in his study. Woo Hye-rim Reporter

The Commission for Social Grand Reform under the Prime Minister is moving to recommend that the government reflect the non-teaching work performed by university lecturers in working hours and expand pay during academic breaks, while also addressing gaps in severance benefits and employer-sponsored health insurance. The aim is to resolve blind spots in working conditions that have persisted seven years after the Lecturer Act took effect. The commission plans to formally adopt three key improvement tasks regarding the treatment of lecturers and deliver them to the Office of the Prime Minister.

As of the 29th, the improvements the commission seeks to recommend are the recalculation of contracted working hours for university lecturers, expansion of pay during academic breaks, and guarantees for employer-sponsored health insurance. The commission is an advisory body under the Prime Minister in which civil society, political parties, and the government participate to discuss social reform agendas; it was launched in December last year.

First, the commission plans to recommend using three times classroom hours as the basis for calculating contracted working hours. The idea is to count non-teaching duties such as preparing classes, writing and grading exams, and advising students as working time. In July 2024, the Supreme Court also ruled that three times classroom hours can serve as a ‘provisional standard’ (a judgment standard that can be applied first in the absence of special circumstances). However, among appointment contracts reviewed from 55 universities, many either failed to state contracted working hours properly or did not reflect non-teaching labor.

The commission also plans to recommend extending the period for which wages are paid during academic breaks. Under the current Lecturer Act, paying lecturers during breaks is mandatory, but the specific level is left to appointment contracts. University lecturers typically receive pay for 34 weeks a year for two semesters, calculated as 15 teaching weeks per semester plus two weeks during the break. The commission intends to recommend recognizing the work period from drafting the syllabus through completion of grade processing, expanding it to about 46 weeks a year or more.

Closing gaps in severance pay and employer-sponsored health insurance is also on the agenda. Under current law, workers averaging fewer than 15 hours per week over four weeks are excluded from severance benefits. In addition, non-full-time teaching staff and part-time teaching staff with fewer than 60 contractual hours per month are excluded from workplace health insurance enrollment. The commission is reviewing options such as creating a special enrollment rule for lecturers, or aggregating lecturers working hours across multiple universities and having those universities share the insurance premiums.

Kang Dae-jung, a professor in the Department of Education at Seoul National University and a member of the Society, Education and Human Rights Subcommittee of the commission, said, “We plan to formally adopt these directions for improvement and recommend them to the government.” However, concrete bills have not yet been prepared, so actual institutionalization will require legal revisions, coordination among ministries, and securing funds.

While agreeing with the commission directions, the lecturers union believes they must be supplemented so that all lecturers benefit. Lee Sang-ryong, senior vice chair of the Korea Non-regular Faculty Union, stressed, “Even if working hours are recognized at three times for lecturers who teach fewer than five hours per week, they still fall short of the 15 hours per week threshold for severance pay,” adding, “Separate standards are needed to guarantee severance pay and social insurance for all lecturers.”

To put the improvements into practice at universities, the financial burden must also be addressed. Kang Nak-won, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at the Korean Council for University Education, said that if the scope for recognizing lecturers working hours expands, labor costs will rise and resources available for student education may shrink, adding, “Without groundbreaking financial support from the government, improvement will likely not be easy.”

Accordingly, some argue that the state needs to strengthen financial support and oversight. One option being discussed is to incorporate standards for improving lecturers treatment into large-scale government funding programs such as the Glocal University initiative, thereby inducing compliance by private universities. Groups such as the Non-regular Faculty Union argue that, to prevent a reduction in lecturer hiring due to improved treatment, the government should oversee by checking the number of lecture hours handled by lecturers at each university and linking this to financial support.

The Ministry of Education has sent official letters to universities and is collecting opinions to revise the manual on lecturer appointment and management, stating that it will review feasible measures. A Ministry of Education official said, “We take very seriously the fundamental question of what has changed since the Lecturer Act took effect,” adding, “We will include in discussions and review measures such as recognizing three times classroom hours as contracted working hours.”