Category Archives: Labor

Provisional Attachment of Assets under Korean Law – How to Secure Your Monetary Claim in Korea

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Let’s assume a creditor has a monetary claim against a debtor in Korea but the debtor refuses to pay it.  The creditor would proceed to file a lawsuit to get a judgment to collect his claim.  Unfortunately, however, the chances are that, knowing the complaint was filed, the debtor would try to conceal or transfer his assets to evade from the judgment to be made later.  This shows why provisional attachment is highly required to secure the judgment to be obtained.

Provisional attachment is a judicial measure available to anyone who has a monetary claim to lock down certain assets to keep the debtor from selling or giving them away until the court issues a judgment on the merit. The creditor can, and usually does, seek a provisional remedy before she files a complaint on the merit.  So, this is a very powerful weapon for the creditor.  For example, as many Korean creditors do, if the creditor succeeds in putting a provisional attachment on the debtor’s bank account, the debtor would not be able to use the money and could face several penalties regarding its banking/financing transactions with the bank.  This could heavily deteriorate the ability for a small com­pany to con­duct business, which makes the debtor Continue reading →

Introduction to the Deportation or Removal Order and How to Appeal the Order in Korea

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그림 2In South Korea, the immigration office may remove or deport from South Korea any person who breached the Immigration Control Act(“ICA”) of South Korea.  Any person who is released after receiving a sentence of imprisonment without prison labor or heavier punishment may be deported by the deportation order as well.

When the immigration officer reasonably finds a foreigner falls under the requirements for the deportation and she might run away, the officer can detain her with the approval from the head of immigration office.  The duration of detention cannot exceed 10 days, which can be renewed up to 10 more days.  During the detention, the officer interviews and decides whether to deport the individual or not.

When the immigration officer decides to deport a foreigner, the officer shall deliver the deportation order to the foreigner and immediately enforce him to leave South Korea.  But, when the individual files a claim for refugee protection, the deportation order cannot be executed until the refugee claim is decided by the Korean authority.

Then, how can you appeal the deportation order issued by the Korean immigration office?  There are two ways to stop the deportation.  First, Continue reading →

[Q&A: Labor Law] As an English Teacher in Korea, Am I Entitled to a Severance Payment, Even Though My Contract Doesn’t Mention It?

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Q) I am on an F2 visa and teaching for 28 months at the same school. The contract between myself and the owner is basically a few written lines, just mention salary and final teaching date. There is no mentioning of severance payment. According to the labor law, am I entitled to severance payment even though it is not mention in a short contract?

A) If and to the extent that you are legally regarded as an employee under Korean labor law, you are entitled to the severance payment.

The term employee under Korean labor law is someone who provides labor pursuant to his or her employer’s instructions or directions in exchange for wage compensation.  The most important factors for classifying someone as an employee are, Continue reading →

[Q&A: Labor Law] Is There a Legally Binding “40 Working Hour a Week Limit” in Korea?

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Q) Please could you clean up this question that nobody seems to be willing to answer. Is there a legally binding 40 working hour a week or not in Korea?

A) Yes, there is a 40-work-hours clause in Korean labor law.

The Labor Standard Act of Korea provides that “Work hours shall not exceed 40 hours a week, excluding hours of recess”.

However, in case of workers who are not less than eighteen years of age and women workers who are not in pregnancy, an employer and a workers’ representative can legally agree to extend work hours in excess of 40 hours a week to the extent that Continue reading →

[Q&A] Can an Employer Ban Its Employee from Having an Additional Job under Korean Labor Law?

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Basically Korean labor Law doesn’t regulate employee’s having concurrent and/or additional job.  However, most employment agreements(EA) prohibit employees from having additional jobs.  So there have been many cases where employers fire employees based on his or her breach of prohibition of additional job clause in EA.

In this regard, the court’s standpoint is that as having additional job is a matter of privacy Continue reading →

Severance Payment or Retirement Pension? When You’re Working for Korean Private School

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Recently I got an email question from a foreign teacher working for a Korean private university.  He’s wondering why the university is insisting on retirement pension plan instead of severance payment.

There is an act called Pension for Private Teachers and Staff Act(PPTSA) in Korea, which regulates severance payment issues in private school.  As a matter of law, PPTSA is applied prior to the GWRBA(Guarantee of Workers’ Retirement Benefits Act) and it allows the private schools to set a retirement pension plan for its employees instead of severance payment.

With respect to the relationship between the employment contract and the pension plan under PPTSA, Private Universities usually, pursuant to the PPTSA, put the retirement pension clauses, instead of severance payment, in the Rules of Employment(RE) of its own.  As a matter of law, the RE is applied to all the workers in a workplace.  That means, if there exists Continue reading →

Severance Payment Plan & Retirement Pension Plan under Korean Labor Law, and Government’s Proposal to Amend Current Sevrance Payment System

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Recently we got a question from a gentleman asking what the exact meaning of the below, an Internet post he’d found:

“It is possible that as of 2011, what was severance pay will be vested in the country’s pension plan. This means that workers (including teachers, etc.) will no longer receive one month’s pay for every year worked at the end of their contract. The legislation is set to discuss/vote on this in 2009.”

He was worrying that he might lose his right of severance payment under Korean law.  But the above article is quite misleading.  The severance payment is the property right of workers.  It can not be vested to anything without workers’ consents.  If the article says the amended law will give the employer or any party but the workers the power to vest the severance payment to country’s pension plan (or whatever) without workers’ consents, it definitely violates Continue reading →