I worked at a restaurant for two years and recently quit. Due to the varying needs of the restaurant, my working hours were not fixed. Some months I worked 60 hours or more, while other months I worked less than 60 hours. If we combine months where I worked 60 hours or more, it would be more than a year, but the employer said he/she is not obligated to pay me severance pay.
Am I entitled to severance pay?


In accordance with the Labor Standards Act, “part time employees” refer to those whose contractual working hours per week are fewer than those of a full-time worker engaged in the same kind of job in the same workplace. “Contractual working hours” refers to the number of hours (up to 40 hours per week and 8 hours a day) which have been agreed on by the relevant workers and employers.
Some requirements, such as severance pay, weekly holidays, and monthly and annual leave, do not apply to part-time employees who have fewer than 15 contractual working hours per week on average for four weeks.
Article 4 of the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act stipulates that “An employer shall set up at least one retirement benefit plan in order to pay benefits to workers who leave employment except for 1) workers whose consecutive service period is less than one year, and 2) workers whose average weekly working hours over a four-week period are fewer than 15 hours.”
Accordingly, if your contractual working hours are fewer than 15 hours based on the contract between you and your employer, you are not entitled to severance pay. However, if your overtime was mandatory or occurred regularly, those overtime hours are considered the working hours already agreed upon between you and your employer so the contractual working hours should be calculated as including that overtime.
In your case, your contractual working hours were not determined in advance, and so some weeks you worked more than 15 hours, and some weeks you worked fewer than 15 hours for a total of two years.
If the total number of weeks in a year that you worked more than 15 hours exceeds 52.14 weeks (365/7 days), you are entitled to severance pay for that year. Moreover, the average wage, which is the basis for calculating severance pay, shall be calculated on the date on which your employment relations ended