Korean Labor Law provides guidelines for annual leave policies in the workplace. The fundamental idea is that employees are entitled to a paid holiday under certain conditions. Here’s a summary for CEOs and HR managers.
Standard Annual Paid Leave
As an employer, you must grant 15 days of paid leave to employees who have attended work for at least 80% of the working days in a year. This applies to employees who have been in continuous service for at least a year.
For employees with less than a year of continuous service or those who attended less than 80% of the working days in a year, the law mandates granting one day of paid leave per month.
Additional Leave Provisions
For employees who have provided continuous service for more than three years, you must add an additional day of paid leave for every two years beyond the initial year. However, the total number of days off, including these additional days, should not exceed 25 days.
Timing and Pay During Leave
You are required to grant leave during the period requested by the employee and pay the usual or average wage during this period. However, you can change the leave period if its initial timing severely disrupts business operations.
Situations Counted as Attendance
Certain periods are counted as attendance when applying the above provisions. These include the periods when an employee is off work due to a work-related injury or illness, when a pregnant woman takes leave as per law, or when an employee takes leave for child-rearing according to the “Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation”.
Unused Leave
Unused leave according to the provisions expires after a year. However, if the leave could not be used due to the employer’s fault, it does not expire.
Promotion of Leave Usage
If an employee does not take their annual leave despite your efforts to promote leave usage, and the unused leave subsequently expires, you are not obligated to compensate for the unused leave, as long as the non-use doesn’t stem from the employer’s fault. To promote leave usage, you should:
- Inform each employee about the number of unused leave days at least six months before the leave expiration date. Employees should then notify the employer of their leave schedule.
- If an employee does not inform you of their leave schedule within 10 days of your notice, you should decide the leave schedule for them two months before the leave expiration date and notify them in writing.
In the case of employees with less than a year of continuous service, a similar process should be followed with a slightly different timeline.
