Ⅰ. Concept

The labor structure is extending to part-time employees, short-term employees, dispatched employees, etc., and labor management is more flexible with the contract period, as the labor market is becoming more intricate and labor regulations strictly enforced. According to Article 16 (Term of Contract) of the Labor Standards Act, "the term of a labor contract shall not exceed one year, except in cases where there is no fixed term or where there is otherwise a fixed term as necessary for the completion of a certain project". This article does not define the employee as a regular or irregular employee, or contract or term employee in accordance with the term of contract. However, we can define a short-term employee as one whose term of contract is one year or less, and a part-time employee as one whose contractual work hours per week are fewer than those of a full-time employee engaged in the same kind of work at the workplace concerned. We generally call short-term and part-time employees “irregular employees,” but this comparison is not regulated by law.

Ⅱ. Legal Protections for Irregular Employees

Issues surrounding the use of irregular workers in Korea began with the introduction of two legal provisions during the Asian economic crisis in 1998: ‘dismissal for managerial reasons’ in the Labor Standards Act and the Employee Dispatch Act. The increased use of irregular workers by companies hoping to reduce their labor costs and ensure flexibility in management of personnel has resulted in greater polarization of society. As this polarization has worsened, laws designed to protect and benefit irregular employees began coming into effect in July 2007, with the aim of encouraging employers to hire them as regular employees. The main thrust of the laws is to limit the use of irregular employees to two years, and eliminate any discrimination between them and regular employees doing the same work. Even though the laws have restricted the increase in use of irregular workers, many companies have been using legal loopholes to continue hiring irregular employees.