Discrimination against maternal grandparents compared to paternal ones continues to persist in company bylaws in terms of funeral benefits. The National Human Rights Commission in 2013, regarding a company practice of differentiating paternal grandpartents from maternal grandparents in terms of family events, issued an opinion that such practice should be corrected by saying “differential treatment of maternal grandparents, despite the fact that paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents are recognized as family of the same status in accordance with the abolition of the patriarchal family system, may be regarded as discrimination”; however, a considerable number of companies continue to discriminate against maternal family in terms of their funeral benefit systems.

In response, this Amendment aims to: i) permit family event leaves for a worker in case he/she applies for such leave to his/her employer; ii) prescribe that in case of a family event leave due to the death of a relative, the duration of leave shall not be different depending on the sex of the deceased person or whether the deceased person was a paternal or a maternal family member; and iii) impose an administrative fine on an employer in case of violation, thereby ensuring family life based on gender equality (Article 22-4 and Article 39 (2) 8, newly inserted).

Prescribe that an employer shall permit a worker to take a family event leave when the worker requests for such leave; and in the case of a worker requesting leave due to the death of a relative, prohibit the duration of the leave from being different based on the sex of the decreased person or whether the deceased person was a paternal family member or maternal family member (Article 22-4)