Gender ministry wasting money in worthless projects

Apr 13, 2021, 08:09 am

AsiaToday reporter Jo Jae-hak

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is apparently wasting precious tax money on some projects regardless of the purpose of the law. The ministry’s ‘so-called ‘Saeil Women Internship’ is a project aimed at helping women, whose careers may have stalled, to quickly adapt themselves to their new jobs in public organizations and sectors that are not often advanced by women. However, the ministry does not clearly stipulate the sectors where women’s advancement is poor, and the number of public organizations participating in the program is found to be insignificant. The employment retention rate plummeted to half the level in less than a year. The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) denounced the project for subsidizing low-quality jobs.

According to data revealed Monday by PPP lawmaker Kim Mi-ae, one out of four quit working within six months after ending their internship under the ‘Saeil Women Internship’ project. Besides, only half of them kept employment for a year.

The project is originally designed to induce employment of female interns by providing support money to companies. Companies that hire one female intern will receive an intern support fund of KRW 800,000 for three months. If they keep employment of a female intern for six months after the end of the internship, an additional KRW 800,000 is given to the company while KRW 600,000 is provided to the intern.

The problem is that the ministry has not been able to meet the purpose of the ‘Act on Promotion of Economic Activities of Career-Interrupted Women’, which is the legal basis for the internship program. The Article 11 stipulates that the Minister of Gender Equality and Family may execute projects for internship employment jointly with any public institution for the fields in which women have less opportunities for employment in order to help career-interrupted women adapt to the jobs available in such fields.

Looking at the number of participants of the ‘Saeil Women Internship’ project in public institutions for the past five years by the gender ministry, there were only three participants last year, and there was none from 2018 to 2019. Considering that the number of participants was 5,812 last year, there was none of participants in public institutions.

The gender ministry is being criticized for not properly explaining the fields in which women have less opportunities for employment. In terms of the industrial structure of the women’s labor market, face-to-face service industries such as lodging, restaurants, health care and social service industries account for the majority, while construction and manufacturing industries have relatively lower entry for women. However, the gender ministry has not picked the fields where women have less opportunities for employment in order to encourage women’s advancement, making it difficult to provide systematic support. The ministry has not officially established or announced the field of low advancement of women.

Besides, the ministry has not separately identified the current status of vulnerable groups, such as single mothers, disabled, and low-income families, who need government support. This indicates that the ministry has not provided detailed support and management for the vulnerable women.

The main opposition PPP sees the Saeil Women Internship as a project that does not create jobs and only increase recruitment subsidies to assist bad jobs. This is because job counselors under the project do not seek new jobs, but look up company’s job offer information to link them with job seekers. They point out it is unnecessary to pay subsidies that are irrelevant to job creation in a situation where companies are already willing to hire.

The budget to support women’s economic activities, including the Saeil Women Internship project, increased to 70.2 billion won this year from 58.5 billion won last year. 4.1 billion won was added to the additional budget that was approved in March.

#The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family #Saeil #Women Internship