Ministry of Employment Temporarily Adjusts Special Overtime Work Period
Excludes First Half of This Year from 1-Year 90-Day Limit
"Responding to COVID-19 Crisis... Normalizing Business Activities"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government will temporarily extend the period during which special extended work hours, limited to 90 days per year, can be utilized. This is to respond swiftly to the national crisis caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
On the 14th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor issued a press release stating, "We are temporarily adjusting the period during which special extended work hours can be utilized," and "Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, the first half of this year will be entirely excluded from the period during which special extended work hours can be used."
The special extended work hours approval system allows employers, with the consent of workers and approval from the Minister of Employment and Labor, to temporarily exceed the 52-hour weekly limit and perform additional extended work hours in cases of special circumstances.
Until last year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor limited "special circumstances" to "cases involving disaster, calamity, or similar accident recovery." However, voices from the field called for expanding the reasons for approving special extended work hours as a supplementary measure following the implementation of the 52-hour workweek system.
Accordingly, through an amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act, from January 31 of this year, the special extended work hours system can be utilized up to 90 days per year in cases of "unexpected situations" and "surges in workload."
However, due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to uniformly exclude the first half of this year from the period during which special extended work hours can be utilized.
As a result, even if companies received approval and used special extended work hours from January 31 to June 30 this year, regardless of the number of days used, they can again utilize special extended work hours for up to 90 days in the second half of the year. This means that companies can use special extended work hours for up to 180 days this year.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor explained this supplementary measure by stating, "Due to the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 continuing in the first half of this year, normal business activities were disrupted, necessitating extraordinary measures to respond."
In fact, among the total 1,665 cases of special extended work hours approved in the first half of this year, 1,274 cases (76.5%) were related to COVID-19, including quarantine, production of masks and diagnostic kits, and domestic alternative production, accounting for the majority.
Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jae-gap said, "I hope this measure will alleviate some of the difficulties faced by the industrial field," and urged, "Employers must strictly implement health protection measures such as health checkups and providing 11 consecutive hours of rest between working days."
He added, "Since this is a temporary supplementary measure, we will strive to ensure that legislative improvements such as the flexible working hours system are promptly passed in the National Assembly."
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