We are a manufacturing company in Ansan and currently employ 22 workers. At present, there is a company handbook that stipulates personnel management, wages, and welfare benefits. We know that, according to the Labor Standards Act, companies must prepare and report their rules of employment. What are the rules of employment and is it possible to report the current handbook to the Ministry of Employment and Labor as it is? And what are the reporting procedures?
The rules of employment specified in the Labor Standards Act are the rules set by the employer regarding the disciplinary and working conditions for employees at the workplace designed to maintain cooperation, to work efficiently, and to ensure uniform working conditions apply at the workplace. Although the rules of employment define the main details of the labor relationship, the rights of the workers may be infringed because they are created by the employer unilaterally. Therefore, the Labor Standards Act imposes legal restrictions on the process and content of employment rules, and obligates employers to report them to the Minister of Employment and Labor, to accept a labor inspector reviewing the rules and workplace, and the Minister’s right to change the employment rules.
Basically, an employer who ordinarily employs ten or more workers must prepare the rules of employment and report them to the district Employment and Labor Office. Since the title of the document does not necessarily have to be “Rules of Employment,” the current handbook mentioned by the questioner, which sets employee working conditions, can be regarded as the rules of employment under the Labor Standards Act. However, the rules of employment should not conflict with any statutes or collective agreements applicable to the business or workplace concerned (Article 96 (1) of the Labor Standards Act) and shall state the required matters specified by law (Article 93 of the Labor Standards Act). These matters include:
1. Matters pertaining to the beginning and ending time of work, recess hours, holidays, leaves, and shifts;
2. Matters pertaining to the determination, calculation and payment method of wages, the period for which wages are calculated, the period for paying wages, and pay raises;
3. Matters pertaining to the methods of calculation and payment of family allowances;
4. Matters pertaining to retirement;
5. Matters pertaining to retirement allowances, bonuses, and minimum wage;
6. Matters pertaining to the burden of workers’ meal allowances, expenses of operational tools or necessities and so forth;
7. Matters pertaining to educational facilities for workers;
8. Matters pertaining to the protection of workers’ maternity and work family balance assistance, such as leaves before and after childbirth and childcare leaves;
9. Matters pertaining to safety and health;
10. Matters pertaining to improvement of workplace environment according to characteristics of individual workers, such as sex, age, or physical ability, etc.;
11. Matters concerning prevention of and measures to handle an occurrence of workplace harassment;
12. Matters pertaining to assistance with respect to occupational and non-occupational accidents;
13. Matters pertaining to reward and punishment;
14. Other matters applicable to all workers within the business or workplace concerned.
However, of the matters above, matters related to shifts, pay raises, family allowances, meal allowances, expenses for operational tools or necessities, bonuses, educational facilities for workers, workplace environment improvements according to worker characteristics such as sex, age, or physical ability, etc., assistance with respect to non-occupational accidents, and reward shall be required only from workplaces to which such matters apply.