KOREA - An end to the “Iron Rice Bowl?”

Posted by Jim Stroud

March 16, 2007

Korea, Tiger, Jobs, HR A career as a civil servant in South Korea has often been called an “iron rice bowl” because of its job security, but that may change soon as local governments are moving to weed out incompetent workers. In recent weeks, most of South Korea’s 16 major regional administrative bodies have one after another announced steps to pick out officials who are unqualified for their tasks and neglect their duties to send them to monotonous field jobs — such as picking up cigarette butts and monitoring vehicles emitting too much exhaust on the street.

The local governments said they will expel the officials for good if they don’t show any signs of self-reflection and improvement.

Spearheading the movement is the Seoul City government, which ordered bureau chiefs to pick 3 percent of their junior officials for eviction. The list of hundreds of city workers to conduct the menial jobs is to be determined by April 10.

“If this painful measure can completely eradicate factors which pose a threat to the existence of our organization and obstruct our development, there will be no more painful actions,” said Seoul City Mayor Oh Se-hoon in an email sent to 9,921 city employees earlier this week.

Oh said he set up the 3 percent target to help bureau chiefs pick problematic workers without being carried away by personal ties, adding they might otherwise condone some real incompetent employees who are close to them.

He said he will provide incentives and rewards to city officials deemed competent and diligent.

Other regional governments are taking similar steps, with one province in southeastern South Korea pushing for “harsher measures.”

“Taking a thorough look at Seoul’s plan, I felt that is like forcing students who don’t do homework to clean school toilets,” said Gov. Kim Tae-ho of South Gyeongsang Province.

Read: Korean civil servantsÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœiron rice bowlÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ in jeopardy.