The government and the ruling Saenuri Party on Thursday agreed to expand the scope of the substitute holiday system scheduled to begin next year.

The system provides an extra day off to workers for a public holiday that falls on a weekend. The two sides have reached an agreement to include Children’s Day in the change.

The system implemented as part of the Park Geun-hye government’s welfare program has so far only included Chuseok and Lunar New Year holidays. Workers are expected to enjoy 1.1 extra day per year on average with the introduction of the new system.

“We agreed to include Children’s Day in the substitute holiday system during today’s meeting, despite (having) disputes about it,” said Rep. Hwang Young-cheul of the ruling Saenuri Party. The meeting was attended by Saenuri members of the Security and Public Administration Committee at the National Assembly and Security Minister Yoo Jeong-bok.

Both the three-day Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays would be extended to four-day holidays when Lunar New Year’s Day or Chuseok falls on a Sunday. Starting with Chuseok next year, the nation would take a day off as it falls on a Sunday.

Rep. Hwang said that the two sides had also agreed in principle to relocate the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to the new administrative city of Sejong, south of Seoul. The relocation plan is likely to be announced within this year. Currently, the Future Ministry is located in the government complex in Gwancheon, Gyeonggi Province, while the Maritime ministry is at the Sejong complex temporarily.

Later in the afternoon, however, a policy planning committee of the ruling party reversed the plan, saying the party had not come up with a final plan yet.

“There is nothing confirmed about plans regarding to the relocation of the maritime and future ministries. We will decide the matter after holding hearing sessions,” the committee said in a statement.

Other agreements include plans to issue resident registration cards for overseas Koreans who stay here for more than 30 days a year. The plan is to increase convenience for Korean nationals overseas, the Ministry of Public Administration said.

Registration of school buses will become mandatory to strengthen children’s safety on roads.

The two sides also reaffirmed the government’s plan to increase budget supports to municipalities if they suffer from income loss after the parliament approves the government’s plan to lower acquisition tax.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)