Tag Archives: Korean Labor Lawyer

[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 →

Potential Legal Issues Surrounding English Instructors(Hagwon Teachers) in South Korea

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Yesterday, I read an interesting article which addressed various legal disputes between English instructors(Hagwon teacher) and their Korean employers.  I’ve heard of many U.S. or Canadian English teachers who were in that kind of legal disputes.  I know it can not be generalized but this article gives useful information on Continue reading →

Employers’ Checklist on Working Conditions under Korean Labor Law

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For foreign companies in Korea, it is very important to know about Korean labor law.  In this regard, Korean Ministry of Labor issued Employer’s Checklist on Working Conditions in Last December.  This list is for any company having 5 or more employees and dealing with 7 labor-related laws.  I think Continue reading →