The Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act allows transportation business to have workers work more hours than the statutory limit of 12 hours of overtime work per week.

According to the survey carried out during the period from 10 to 20 this month by the Bus Drivers Division of the Korea Public Service and Transportation Workers' Union, semi-public city bus drivers work 10 hours and 26 minutes a day on average, and private company city bus drivers work 16 hours and 46 minutes and inter-city bus drivers work 17 hours and 8 minutes.

The inter-city bus drivers in particular work 74 hours and 52 minutes a week, which is almost 35 hours of overtime a week, well exceeding the limit of 12 hours a week. The fatigue and lack of sleep of bus drivers may seriously threaten the safety and life of bus drivers and the public alike.

reported by Yoon Ja-eun
translated by Kim Sung-jin