SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sihoon Yang, Young Min Kim, Jung Mo Hong and Douglas Hwang, Yoon & Yang LLC
Yoon & Yang LLC ASEM Tower 517 Yeongdong-daero Gangnam-gu
06164 Seoul South Korea
Tel: +82 260 037 000 Fax: +82 260 037 800 Email: yoonyang@yoonyang.com Web: www.yoonyang.com
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status
does not have provisions that separately govern the duration of employment contracts. Therefore, employ - ers and employees may freely determine the duration of the contract. However, definite employment contracts are governed by the Act on the Protection, etc, of Fixed-Term and Part-Time Workers (the “Fixed-Term Workers Act”). According to Article 4 of the Fixed-Term Workers Act, employment contracts with a fixed term in excess of two years are considered to be indefinite employment contracts. Article 17 (1) and (2) of the Labor Standards Act pro - vides that employment contracts must explicitly pro - vide for the terms and conditions of employment in writing (which can be in the form of electronic docu - ments). In particular, employment contracts must include provisions on: • wages (eg, composition of wages, methods for calculating wages and methods for paying wages); • contractual working hours; • holidays; and • annual paid leave. Moreover, employers are obliged to deliver these employment contracts to employees. 1.3 Working Hours Since 1 July 2021, the weekly maximum working hours (52 hours) have been applied to businesses or
Labour laws in the Republic of Korea (“South Korea”) do not distinguish blue-collar workers from white- collar workers, and these terms are merely used to describe employees doing different types of work. Hence, blue- and white-collar workers both fall under “employees”, as defined under the Labor Standards Act, and are subject to identical treatment under other labour-related laws. The Labor Standards Act defines employees as persons who provide labour to businesses or workplaces for the purpose of earning wages, irrespective of job type. Forms of employment can be largely categorised into two types: • direct employment by the employer; and • indirect employment of another employer’s employee. These forms may be further narrowed down based on the employee’s employment contract period and roles. 1.2 Employment Contracts Among the various types of employment contracts, the two major types are “employment contracts with - out a fixed term” (ie, indefinite employment contracts) and “employment contracts with a fixed term” (ie, def - inite employment contracts). The Labor Standards Act
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