Nearly half of Korean workers are unable to freely take parental leave or use reduced working hours for childcare, a survey showed Sunday. According to the survey conducted on 1,000 office workers aged 19 and older from June 1 to 9, 46.7 percent of respondents said they could not freely take parental leave. The survey was commissioned by Gapjil 119, a civic group dedicated to stamping out power abuse by people in higher positions, and conducted by polling agency Global Research. In the survey, contract workers reported greater difficulty than full-time employees, with 62.3 percent saying they could not freely take parental leave, compared with 36.3 percent reported among permanent employees. More than 68 percent of employees at workplaces with fewer than five employees said they faced difficulties using such a leave, compared to 30.5 percent working at larger companies with 300 or more employees. Notably, the figure climbed to 70.2 percent for female contract workers. Over 41 percent of respondents also said they could not freely take maternity leave. In contrast, male workers and senior ma