Starting in July, nursery headmasters who close their institutions for more than one day without legitimate reason will be penalized and their facilities could be shut down, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Sunday.

The rule is expected to put fetters on 15,000 private nurseries looking after more than 750,000 children nationwide.

The measures came as groups of nursery operators including the Korea Edu-Care Association have been on months-long protests against the government’s recent freeze of subsidies. They threatened to close their facilities from May 28 to June 8 should the government fail to suggest incentives or a subsidy increase.

According to the revision of the Infant Care Act that will take effect this summer, nurseries that close for more than one day without reporting legitimate reasons to local authorities will be warned first, then a shutdown will be considered and the headmasters will face prosecution.

“Because the shutdown could cause good teachers to lose their jobs, we will prioritize and focus on penalizing the headmasters,” a ministry official said.

He said headmasters who force teachers to participate in protests or other class actions will be given additional punishment.

“Headmasters’ ordering teachers to join their class actions is a neglect of children in need of care,” he said.

The Korea Edu-Care Association and others in February declared that about 5,000 of its members were to have their facilities closed for a day or two to express their demands but backed down after being harshly denounced by parents’ groups and receiving an offer of negotiations from the ministry.

The government has since established a discussion body comprised of representatives from the government, childcare experts and nursery operators but has seen little progress.

Head of the Korea Edu-Care Association Park Chun-young, has been fasting front of the presidential office in central Seoul since May 8 calling for strengthened state support for nurseries.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)