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According to JTBC News, a 7 grade (low-level) civil servant employee 'A' who works at a 119 Safety Center located in the province of Gyeongbuk owns a silicon finger containing a duplicate of his own fingerprint. He entrusts his hoobae employees with this finger so that whenever they work later than he does, they can use that finger to sign him out via a machine, making it appear as if he worked longer hours. The result? He gets paid for more hours than he worked.
Apparently, this is not an uncommon practice among civil servants. The manufacturer of the silicon finger states that more civil servants are purchasing these fingers. They added that these silicon fingers cost around 250,000 won (approx. $230 USD).
The investment seems well worth it. Civil servants usually earn around 10,000 won (approx. $9 USD) per hour and some can make an additional 2 to 4 million won ($2,000 to $3,700 USD) per year by abusing the hourly tracker system with the silicon finger.
Netizens appeared to condemn these tactics as top comments stated: "Reading this makes me wonder if all [civil servants] know about this [tactic].... My parents are above 7 grade civil servants and, whether they work overtime or take a sick leave, they receive their pay for their amount of work honestly. Because of those idiots, people are talking badly about civil servants. It upsets me, seriously," "Wasted talent," and, "Hey bastards, don't curse out civil servants. My dad always goes out during the weekends to the office, works, and earns his allowance, you bastards, damn."
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