Working Hours, Holiday, Leave

Chapter 1 Working Hours

Case Study 1-1 Disputes around Working Hours

In early September 2009, five foreign English teachers working at an institute in Incheon visited this labor law firm and we began establishing a case regarding their unpaid overtime allowance. The teachers were supposed to work 30 hours per week, 6 hours per day, to complete their contractual working hours according to their employment contract, but their employer had them working 40 hours a week by keeping them at work for 8 hours a day, which resulted in two hours of overtime every day. The employment contract stipulated, “The employee shall work 30 hours per week, or 120 hours per month. If the employee agrees to work overtime, the employer shall pay a 15,000 won overtime rate per hour.” At a meeting between the employer and the teachers on September 1, one female foreign English teacher brought up the issue of working overtime without being paid for overtime, and the employer gave her verbal notice that her employment would be terminated in one month. Uncertain of their rights, the foreign English teachers brought their concerns to this labor law firm as a group, seeking remedy for their situation. Then the English teachers collectively refused to do any more overtime that was not stipulated in the employment contract. Mr. Jung was the legal attorney representing English teachers for this case at the Gyeonggi Labor Office from September to November 2009.

The labor inspector in charge of this petition case investigated both parties. The employer stated that the actual teaching hours were only 6 per day, but the remaining hours were preparation time required for teaching. However, the teachers claimed they had to come to the institute for preparation, and if they were late, they were penalized. Therefore, this mandatory preparation time should be regarded as working hours. In this dispute, the labor inspector confirmed that each day the teachers had to stay in the institute for two hours above the regulated 6 working hours, but that they had some time for dinner between their working hours. The labor inspector concluded that the employer be ordered to pay 50% of what the teachers claimed as unpaid overtime.

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call (+82) 2-539-0098 or email bongsoo@k-labor.com

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