The company's employment rules stipulate that the retirement age is 60 years of age. However, when I turned 60, I did not receive any notice from the company that I have to retire.
I'm 62 years old now, and I'm still working, two years into retirement. At this point I'm suddenly under pressure to quit based on the retirement age regulations. If I don't comply with the company’s pressure, do I have any legal recourse?
In Korea, “Termination” means the end of a labor relationship between the employer and the worker, and occurs upon ① resignation, ② dismissal, and ③ retirement etc. “Resignation” means an employee voluntarily ends a labor relationship, while “Dismissal’ means an employee has been forced to accept the end of a labor relationship.
In contrast, “Natural Termination” means that a labor relationship automatically ends only with the occurrence of a certain6 reason. For example, if the employee dies or reaches the retirement age stipulated in the rules of employment or a collective agreement, or the labor contract period expires.
Especially, the retirement age system involves terminating labor contracts without considering the intention or ability of workers to work when they reach a certain age, and this is a typical reason for natural termination. According to a Supreme Court precedent, reaching the retirement age is distinguished from dismissal, and the Labor Relations Commission has also deemed labor relationship termination upon reaching the retirement age as not unfair dismissal. Therefore, in principle, if the worker reaches the retirement age, it is a natural reason for termination, and the labor relationship is automatically terminated.
However, even if there are retirement age regulations in the rules of employment, if the worker continued to work after reaching retirement age, the labor contract could be implicitly renewed even if the labor contract was not re-signed. In other words, even if a company has a retirement age system, it cannot be considered that workers who have continued working after retirement have been retired the whole time since reaching retirement age.
Your company is considered to be operating a retirement age system, but you were not notified that you had reached the retirement age at the time. If you have worked beyond the retirement age for two years, your contract may be considered implicitly renewed.
Hence, unless there is justifiable reason for dismissal other than the fact that the retirement age has been reached, it will be unfair dismissal and it will be possible for you to apply for relief with the Labor Relations Commission.
Even if a company operates a retirement age system, a contract can be renewed as a commissioned work contract if both parties agree.