Employment 2025

SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sihoon Yang, Young Min Kim, Jung Mo Hong and Douglas Hwang, Yoon & Yang LLC

Fertility treatment leave Fertility treatment leave is covered under Article 18-3 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. If an employee requests fertility treatment leave in order to receive medical treatment, such as artificial insemina - tion or in vitro fertilisation, their employer is obliged to grant up to six days of leave per year, of which the first two days shall be paid leave. Childcare leave Childcare leave is covered under Article 19 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. An employer must permit childcare leave of up to one year if: • a female employee requests childcare leave to pro - tect her motherhood during pregnancy; or • an employee requests childcare leave to tend to their child who is eight years of age or younger, or in second grade or lower in elementary school. Further, where both parents each take no less than three months of childcare leave for the same child, the parents may each use up to six months of additional childcare leave beyond the one-year limit described in the foregoing. Upon returning from childcare leave, the employer must reinstate the returning employee to the same position, or a position at the same wage level, as they had prior to taking the childcare leave. Family-care leave Family-care leave is covered under Article 22-2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and Article 16-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the same act. An employee may request family-care leave to care for their grand - parents, parents, spouse, parents-in-law, children or grandchildren (hereinafter, referred to as “family”) on the grounds of disease, accident or senility. If family- care leave is requested, an employer is obliged to grant up to 90 days of leave per year. Family-care leave may be taken on multiple occasions, provided that each period of leave is at least 30 days long. Short-term family-care leave This is also covered under Article 22-2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and Article 16-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the same act. An employee

with the employee representative (see Article 55 (2) of the Labor Standards Act). Annual paid leave is prescribed under Article 60 of the Labor Standards Act, and it refers to the 15 days of paid vacation granted to employees who have worked for at least 80% of a year. If an employee has provided continuous work for less than a full year or worked less than 80% of a year, then one day of paid vaca - tion is granted as annual paid leave for every month in which an employee provided continuous work. Required Leave Leave that is statutorily guaranteed includes maternity leave, paternity leave, fertility treatment leave, child - care leave, family-care leave, short-term family-care leave and menstrual leave. Maternity leave Maternity leave is covered under Article 74 (1) of the Labor Standards Act, and it refers to the leave granted to pregnant women prior to and after childbirth. Stat - utes on maternity leave are mandatory provisions and, thus, neither the employer’s right to adjust the tim - ing of such leave nor an employee’s forfeiture of the right to take such leave is recognised under the law. Employers must grant a total of 90 continuous days of leave prior to and after childbirth, and at least 45 days of this 90-day leave must be allocated after childbirth (however, 100 days must be granted to a pregnant employee who gives birth to a premature baby, and 120 days to a pregnant employee who is pregnant with two or more children at a time). Paternity leave Paternity leave is covered under Article 18-2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Bal - ance Assistance Act (the “Equal Employment Oppor - tunity Act”). If an employee notifies paternity leave due to their spouse giving birth, their employer is obliged to grant them 20 days’ leave. However, paternity leave cannot be used if 120 days have passed since the employee’s spouse gave birth to the child. Paternity leave is granted to an employee on a paid basis. An employer is prohibited from dismissing, or taking any disadvantageous measures against, an employee on the basis of paternity leave.

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