Kwonikwi: "Payment Determined Based on Continuous Employment Even for Daily Contract Workers"
[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok]
#Company A operated a large corporation's parcel logistics center on consignment but was declared bankrupt by the court in October last year. About 400 daily workers filed complaints with the local Employment and Labor Office regarding unpaid wages and severance pay and applied for confirmation of the Wage Claim Guarantee Fund. The Labor Office did not recognize the unpaid wages and severance pay, reasoning that workers signed new labor contracts each time they came to work to receive daily wages, and whether they worked the next day was determined based on work conditions, so the next day's work was not confirmed.
On the 20th, the Central Administrative Appeals Commission of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that it decided the Labor Office was wrong in not recognizing severance pay for daily workers on the grounds that the next day's work was not confirmed. The administrative appeal ruled that even daily workers who continuously worked at one workplace should receive severance pay.
The Appeals Commission explained that it referred to the Supreme Court precedent that even daily workers who worked continuously about 4 to 5 days up to 15 days a month are considered workers eligible for severance pay. The Commission cited as grounds that ▲a significant number of daily workers at Company A's workplace regularly came to work more than 15 days a month performing the same tasks and received weekly holiday allowances premised on continuous employment ▲Company A also reflected severance reserves for daily workers in its budget and managed attendance for continuous workers.
The Appeals Commission recognized the continuous work of daily workers and canceled the Labor Office's disposition that did not recognize severance pay. It also ruled in favor of the workers regarding unpaid wages such as holiday pay. About a year after filing the complaint, Company A's daily workers will receive three months' wages and three years' severance pay from the state based on their actual working periods.
Min Seongsim, Director of the Administrative Appeals Bureau at the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, said, "The fact of being a daily contract worker itself makes the next day's work uncertain, so severance pay eligibility cannot be judged on that basis. It should be judged based on actual work such as continuous employment."
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