Bill passed to designate May 1 as public holiday

South Korea's National Assembly passed a bill Tuesday to designate Labor Day, which falls on May 1, as a public holiday.

If the revision to the Act on Public Holidays is approved at an upcoming Cabinet meeting, every employee in South Korea, regardless of employment status, will be granted the right to rest on Labor Day starting this year.

Since 1994, Labor Day has been a paid holiday for those considered workers under the Labor Standards Act, leaving civil servants, school teachers and delivery workers ineligible for the day off.

Among the bills passed in Tuesday's session was a package to stabilize the foreign exchange market. It aims to provide tax breaks for small stock investors who use proceeds from overseas stocks to buy domestic stocks and tax relief for investors buying derivatives with less exposure to foreign exchange volatility.

The plenary session also approved the chairship of three parliamentary committees, all of which went to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers.

Four-time Democratic Party lawmaker Rep. Seo Young-kyo was elected as chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. Three-term lawmaker Rep. Kwon Chil-seung will chair the Security and Public Administration Committee, and another three-term lawmaker Rep. So Byung-hoon will lead the Health and Welfare Committee.

Filling the empty posts with their predecessors running for the June 3 local election, they will serve about two-month terms as new committee chairs are to be elected in May in the second half of the 22nd National Assembly.