We are a medical device manufacturer and have an office in Seoul and a manufacturing facility in Pocheon. At the Pocheon manufacturing plant, the plant manager exercised overall command and supervision, evaluation, and other personnel management responsibilities for the production staff. Once the number of hires was approved by the head office, the applicants for production were first interviewed by the plant manager, and if he decided to hire him/her and reported it to the Seoul office, unless there was a special case, the company agreed to hire the applicant. However, after the manager resigned, he said he had not received an allowance for overtime, and he is asking for an overtime allowance. The company did not even know whether he had actually worked overtime because it was difficult to measure the actual hours worked at the factory. Is there an obligation for the company to pay an overtime allowance to the retiring plant manager?
According to Article 63 of the Labor Standards Act, workers engaged in surveillance or intermittent work are not covered by the provisions of the Labor Standards Act concerning work hours, recess, and holidays. Therefore, if the relevant manager is a person engaged in management supervision duties, he does not have to receive an additional wage for extended working hours.
Whether the manager is a supervisor who is not subject to regulations such as working hours is not dependent on the formal position title, but is determined in a comprehensive manner by reviewing whether he has decision-making authority on company labor management policy in accordance with actual status of the job, whether his working hours are regulated, whether he is receiving benefits for his status, etc.
Since more specific facts are unknown, it’s hard to give an exact answer. However, the plant manager had exercised a certain authority in personnel management such as making first stage decisions on hiring production staff, and, considering the fact that he managed overall manpower and labor of the production staff, it is possible to view him as a person engaged in managerial and supervision work. In addition to this, if the plant manager did not receive any direction on his working hours, and he was paid an extra position allowance according to his status as plant manager, the relevant manager is definitely engaged in managerial and supervision work and overtime, and holiday working hours will not apply. If that’s the case, it is permissible to not pay an overtime allowance.