Document Retention and Disposal in Korea

Once the hiring decision is made, many HR teams treat the file as being closed: what happens to the applicants’ documents. The law splits an employer's post-decision paperwork obligations into three separate tracks — one for applicants who were not hired, one for the records of those who were, and one for employees who eventually leave.

Documents From Unsuccessful Applicants

Under Fair Hiring Procedures Act (채용절차의 공정화에 관한 법률, "FHPA")Article 11, if an applicant submitted physical recruitment documents (채용서류) at the employer's request, the employer must — before the hiring decision is finalized — set and disclose a retention period of 14 to 180 days during which the applicant may request their return. Documents submitted through the company's website or by email, or volunteered without being requested, fall outside this return regime entirely.

In either case, once the retention window lapses without a request, or once a document was never subject to return in the first place, destruction is governed by the Personal Information Protection Act (개인정보 보호법, "PIPA") Article 21: the documents must be destroyed "without delay" once their purpose has been served. Regulatory guidance treats this as ordinarily meaning within five business days — a useful operating benchmark, though not literal same-day deletion.

Records for the People You Hire

The documents become "employment record". Under the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법, "LSA") Articles 41 and 42, employers must keep the employee roster, employment contracts, wage ledgers, and related documents for at least three years.

Certificates of Employment After Departure

A third clock starts when an employee resigns or is terminated. LSA Article 39 and its Enforcement Decree Article 19 entitle a former employee who worked continuously for at least 30 days to request a certificate of employment (사용증명서, often called a 경력증명서 in practice) covering tenure, job duties, position, and pay. The employer must issue it "immediately" on request, including only the items the former employee actually asked for. This duty runs for three years after separation, with no exemption for smaller employers. After three years, the obligation lapses, though many employers issue the certificate anyway as a courtesy.

A Practical Checklist

• Fix a 14–180 day retention window for rejected applicants' physical documents, and disclose it before the hiring decision is finalized.
• Build in a trigger to destroy those documents once the window lapses without a return request.
• Treat online and email submissions as outside the return regime from the start, and schedule their destruction once the role is filled.
• Retain employment contracts, wage ledgers, and the employee roster for at least three years, independent of the recruitment-document rules above.
• Keep a simple process for issuing certificates of employment within three years of departure, limited to what the former employee requests.

This article is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Specific facts may call for a tailored review of the applicable rules and a company's internal HR policies. For questions about recruitment document handling or broader HR compliance in Korea, reach out to SJC at The Seoul Counsel.