Annual Report 2014 Pregnant Women, etc. according to this recommendation in the first half of 2015. D. Recommendation on the Promotion of Social Workers’Human Rights and the Improvement of their Treatment The human rights of social workers became an important social concern as a series of incidents, such as the suicides and deaths related to the overwork of social workers, or the verbal or physical abuse by civil petitioners continued. The Commission conducted an investigation looking at the human rights situations of social workers and found that the general working conditions of social workers were very poor, leading to very grave issues of exhaustion and high turnover. With the aim of promoting the human rights of, and improving the treatment for social workers, thereby protecting the human rights of those who need social welfare services and enhancing the quality of social welfare services, the Commission recommended that the Minister of Health and Welfare integrate new provisions to guarantee the rights and status of social workers in the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Enhancement of the Treatment and Status of Social Workers. It also recommended that the Minister stipulate a local government’s responsibility to comply with the guidelines on the wages for employees in social welfare facilities in Article 4 of the same Enforcement Decree and to take measures to encourage the implementation by announcing the compliance/non-compliance rate on August 21, 2014. The NHRCK also recommended local governments to comply with the guidelines on the wages for employees in social welfare facilities to prevent regional wage disparity on the same date. 32 ▪▪▪ Part II. Major Activities of the Commission