Many employers in Korea pay a flat monthly salary meant to cover base pay plus overtime, night work, and holiday premiums in one number, without separately calculating hours worked each month. This is the comprehensive wage system(포괄임금제). This post explains the basic concept, when Korean courts have allowed it,
An employee facing a disciplinary hearing asks to bring an attorney into the room and let that attorney speak on his behalf. The employer says no, but offers a compromise: the attorney can wait in a nearby room, and the employee can step out to consult if needed. The hearing
This is the first post in a broader series on corporate compliance in Korea. Foreign companies and technology firms operating in Korea, increasingly face compliance questions including export control. A company ships a high-performance chip out of Korea without checking whether it needs a permit first. That single oversight
Many foreign-invested companies start small in Korea. A regional sales office. A liaison office that grew into a handful of local hires. A startup's first Korea team. At that size, a common and reasonable question comes up: do all kinds of restrictions under the labor law actually
This is Part 7 of our series on workplace harassment under Korean labor law. Part 1 covered the basic legal definition. Part 2 covered the employer's investigation duty. Part 3 covered protecting the affected employee during the investigation and introduced the prohibition on disadvantageous treatment. Part 4 covered
An employee files a harassment report against a colleague. Then another. Then five more, over the following months, each one thin on specifics. This is where a legitimate reporting system could be used for unintended purposes. This is Part 6 of our series on workplace harassment under Korean labor law.
A manager assigns a task the employee cannot possibly finish in the time given. Another manager scolds a junior employee harshly, but only once, and only because the job genuinely demanded it. Which one of these “exceed the reasonable scope of work”? This is Part 5 of our series on
A worker holds one-year contracts for nearly a decade. His performance reviews are strong. Then his employer restructures the department and lets his contract lapse. Does the worker have a claim? Under Korean law, long-term renewal can create a "renewal expectation right" (갱신기대권) that limits an
Many foreign-invested companies in Korea assume "employee representative" is a fixed role or a formality. It is not that simple. Korean labor law creates this role for specific purposes, and it matters whether the person holding it was actually selected the right way. Who Gets to be
A worker argues with his shift leader. That same day, his name disappears from the next work schedule. He doesn’t come back to work. About a month later, the company formally dismisses him for the absence. Was the removal from the schedule itself a dismissal? Both the Seoul Regional
Nowadays, it is quite common to see fellow colleagues taking a certain period for childcare leave. In such cases, companies often consider bringing in temporary or dispatch staff to cover the leave period. Until recently, exactly when that replacement worker could lawfully start was quite narrow. On July 1, 2026,
Korean employment law is changing on a rolling schedule between August 2026 and June 2027. The changes come from two separate statutes. The Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act expands leave and childcare protections. The Labor Standards Act and the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act raise penalties
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
If you are searching for an labor compliance audit lawyer in Korea, you are likely a regional HR director, in-house counsel, or country manager. Someone above you asked a simple question: is our Korean entity compliant? That question usually comes up before a funding round, before a headquarters review,
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
A one-year-old wanders alone through a childcare center for twenty-five minutes. No teacher is watching him. He walks into an unlocked kitchen and falls into a pot of hot soup left on the floor. The center's director was charged with a workplace negligence offense for
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
A key employee resigns and moves straight to a competitor. For many employers, the first question is whether they can litigate to stop that move before real damage is done. The answer is yes, through a non-compete injunction, but only under specific conditions. This post gives a short introduction
Corporate Compliance
Foreign companies in Korea often assume that any employee who copies internal documents before leaving has committed a crime. That assumption is too broad. On April 24, 2025, the Supreme Court of Korea reversed a conviction in a case that clarifies exactly when removing company data crosses into occupational breach
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
Work rules does have an actual impact on the employee’s working conditions. What makes it difficult to revise is that if anything that can lower an employee's pay or benefits, this would require consent from the employees. This post covers the basic legal framework first, then the
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
Unused annual leave is a wage claim. That is the rule covered in our companion post on annual leave accrual and compensation. But the Labor Standards Act (LSA) gives employers one statutory way out. Article 61 sets up a "leave use promotion" procedure. Run it correctly, and the
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
Annual paid leave can be confusing. This is one of the areas where less experienced HR teams receive various inquiries and complaints from the employees. This post walks through the statutory framework, shows how leave accrues with a worked example, and explains when unused leave should be paid out. The
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
Korea's Serious Accidents Punishment Act (중대재해처벌법, "SAPA") holds business owners and top management personally accountable — including potential criminal liability — when a workplace death or severe injury results from a failure to build and operate a proper safety and health management system. For foreign-invested companies operating
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
If someone at your company is being harassed at work, where can you report this? There could be two main paths: The first runs through the employer. The second goes directly to the government. Neither path is exclusive. Further to our previous entries, this Part 4 dig on reporting process.
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
When a workplace harassment complaint comes in, a company's attention naturally focuses toward "who did what" — identifying the parties, taking statements, establishing the facts. What should not be missed during the process is the duty to protect the affected employee, even before harassment has been formally
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
In Part 1 of this series, we covered the statutory definition of workplace harassment and the basic framework under the Labor Standards Act. This post goes deeper: when does the duty to investigate kick in, and how thorough does an investigation actually need to done? When the Duty Arises Article
HR & Korean Labor Compliance
If you run a business in Korea, workplace harassment is one of the most important topics to be aware of. It is not a soft-skills issue. Rather, it is a statutory compliance obligation with reporting duties, investigation requirements with potential criminal exposure. Just yesterday on July 2, 2026, the