Seoul City government has decided to send pregnant civil servants home an hour early from work for prenatal care, making them the first in the public sector to adopt this type of policy.

The Seoul City Council passed a revised ordinance Thursday on giving female civil servants with babies and pregnant workers an hour of “maternity protection,” enabling them to leave work an hour early and choose flexible working hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to city government officials.

Before the revised law, female civil servants with children younger than 1-year-old were only given an hour-long break for breast-feeding, but pregnant workers were exempted from the policy.

The request of female civil servants has been considering revising the ordinance on office regulations for Seoul city government as they find it hard to spare an hour for maternal needs during working hours in their office.

The city government expects the revised working system to benefit an annual average of 100 pregnant civil workers, and help prevent premature births or stillbirths.

“We anticipate that the revised ordinance will create a caring and friendly working environment for pregnant civil workers,” said Jeong Hyo-sung, director of city affairs.

“The city government will step up its efforts to address the nationwide low-birth rate problem by creating welfare policy for female civil servants with babies.”

In order to tackle the low birth rate, the Korean government has come up with several family-friendly policies such as extending paternity leave from three to five days, including three days of paid leave.

The recently passed law for balancing work and family life also enables employees with children under 6 years old to leave early from work upon request and give workers on temporary contracts maternity or paternity leave as well.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)