[KS] Special Leave

[Ruediger Frank]

Dear Mr. Prendergast,

in response to your inquiry about Korean labor laws:

After a brief screening the labor laws I know, I could find not much on the 
points you have mentioned, especially on special leave. So I guess they are 
subject to voluntary agreement between employer and employee.

Here is the information I found on paid leave in general.

As far as I can tell, the act in question is the Labor Standards Act (³ëµ¿ 
±Ù·Î±âÁعý), introduced on March 13, 1997 by Act No. 5309 and last amended 
(in the latest version I have) by Act. No. 5885 on February 8, 1999.

According to article 54 of the Act and 25 of the Enforcement Decree (³ëµ¿ 
±Ù·Î±âÁعý½ÃÇà·É), at least one paid holiday shall be granted to a person 
with perfect attendance of contractual working days during a period of one 
week.

According to article 57 of the Act and article 27 of the Enforcement 
Decree, a one day's paid leave shall be granted to a person with perfect 
attendance of contractual working hours during a period of one month.

According to article 59 of the Act, an employer shall grant ten days of 
paid leaves annually to workers who have worked for one year without 
absence and eight days to those who have registered an attendance of not 
less than 90% during one year.

In the same article, the workers are given the right to get another day of 
annual leave per year of employment (after a grace period of two years). If 
the total number of paid leaves exceeds 20 days, ordinary wages may be paid 
for the number of days in excess instead.

Article 71 grants women a one day's menstruation paid leave per month (but 
I think this has recently been abolished or it is planned to do so, maybe 
others on the list can help us out here?).

ACHTUNG: What is strange is that the maternity leave in the contract you 
cite is not paid, since Article 72 of the Labor Standards Act explicitly 
grants pregnant women a sixty day's PAID maternity leave before and after 
childbirth, provided, that not less than 30 days shall be granted after 
childbirth. The LSA in principle applies to businesses with not less than 
five ordinarily employed workers (Article 10).

The term "special leave" and marriage are not mentioned at all. On 
funerals, I only found Article 86 of the Labor Standards Act referring to 
accident compensation: If a worker who dies during the performance of his 
duties or as a result thereof, the employer has to provide funeral expenses 
equivalent to the average wage  of 90 days.

That's all I have. Did you ask the Ministry of Labor (www.molab.go.kr)? 
According to my experience, often legislation is hidden in Ministerial 
Ordinances, which do not need the consent of the National Assembly.

Best,

Ruediger Frank


At 14:49 08.01.02 +0000, you wrote:

>Dear members,
>
>I am currently writing a chapter on modern Korean funerals and have a
>little question I am hoping some of you might be able to help me
>with. In the small number of modern employment contracts I have seen in
>Korea, there is usually some kind of special leave for workers who are
>getting married or who lose a family member through death. Here is an
>example of a contract I saw in 2000.
>
>Article 16 (Special leave) (1) Employee may take a Special Leave for a
>number of days as set forth below for each of the following events:
>1. Seven (7) calendar days for Employee's marriage.
>2. Seven (7) calendar days for the death of Employee's parent or spouse;
>five (5) calendar days for the death of Employee's child.
>3. In case of a female Employee, sixty (60) calendar days for a maternity
>leave.
>
>(2) Special Leaves specified in items (1) 1 and 2 are available with pay.
>However, maternity leave shall be available without pay.
>
>
>I am wondering whether this provision is made for most employment
>contracts nowadays in Korea, and whether it remains common for an
>employee to get seven days of leave for the death of a parent / spouse in
>comparison to five days for a child? Perhaps those of you who have had
>contracts could let me know if it applied to yours? Indeed I was wondering
>if some version of this is now a requirement under Korean labor law? I
>remember reading something about this in the past but it escapes me. I
>looked through the VERY outdated Korean law books I have at hand, and
>found nothing.
>
>If it was introduced, I would be most interested in finding out when and
>the discussion that went on behind it.
>
>All the best,
>
>David Prendergast.
>
>----------------------------
>David Prendergast
>Ph.D Candidate
>Dept. of Social Anthropology
>University of Cambridge
>Free School Lane
>Cambridge CB2 3RF
>U.K.
>Tel: ++44 (0)1353 727175
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