Replacement Workers Even During Handover Periods for Childcare Leave?

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, the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) changed its administrative interpretation of two statutes so that employers can now use fixed-term or dispatch replacement staff not only during the childcare leave itself, but also during the handover period immediately before and after it.

The Gap Between Two Government Programs

The change closes a mismatch between two parts of the same system.

MOEL had long interpreted the lawful "usage period" for fixed-term and dispatch workers more narrowly, limiting it strictly to the leave period. A company that brought in a fixed-term worker two months early for handover training, exactly what the subsidy was designed to support, risked exceeding what labor law actually permitted for that worker's use.

What Changed, and the Legal Basis

After review, MOEL revised its interpretation so the handover period now falls within the lawful usage period. Under the new interpretation, the vacancy period is considered as including the handover time on both sides of the leave, not ending the moment the leave itself begins or ends.

Guardrails Against Misuse

MOEL built in two conditions to keep employers from stretching "handover" into an open-ended workaround of the usual limits on fixed-term and dispatch employment.

First, the work the replacement actually performs during the handover period has to be genuine handover work, not general operations under a different label. Second, the handover period itself has to be short and fixed in advance, documented through a handover statement or similar record rather than left open-ended.

What This Means for Employers in Korea

For a foreign-invested company, the practical change is one of timing. A fixed-term or dispatch worker can now start earlier, before the departing employee's leave officially begins, and stay briefly after that employee returns, without exceeding the legal usage period, as long as the company documents the handover period and the actual work performed in it. Companies that already coordinate hiring with the childcare leave replacement subsidy should update their internal timeline and handover documentation templates to match. Companies that avoided early hiring out of caution under the old interpretation now have more room to plan ahead.

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This post is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. For guidance on staffing during childcare leave or a specific fixed-term or dispatch worker arrangement, please consult qualified Korean labor counsel.

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