The use of annual leave by employees of the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation (KOMSCO) is extremely low, and this is analyzed to be because unused annual leave is fully compensated in cash.
According to data submitted by KOMSCO to Assemblyman Han Byung-do (Jeonbuk Iksan-si Eul, Democratic Party of Korea), a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, the proportion of KOMSCO employees who did not use any annual leave in the past five years reached 9.8% in 2018, 16% in 2019, 29.9% in 2020, 29.5% in 2021, and 25.5% in 2022.
On the other hand, the number of employees who used all their annual leave was only 1 (0.1%) in 2021 and 8 (0.6%) in 2022.
The reason for KOMSCO employees' reluctance to use annual leave is attributed to the labor-management collective agreement and internal regulations. For example, according to the regulations, KOMSCO employees can receive compensation for unused annual leave.
The problem is that intentional non-use of annual leave leads to the payment of large compensation amounts.
In fact, Employee A was entitled to 75 days of annual leave from 2020 to 2022 but used only one day, resulting in receiving 21.03 million KRW in annual leave compensation.
Additionally, Employee B received 13.57 million KRW in annual leave compensation from 2021 to 2022, and Employee C received 13 million KRW in 2019 and 2022.
For the same reason, the amount of annual leave compensation paid by KOMSCO has also increased significantly. The annual leave compensation expenditure, which was 3.98 billion KRW in 2018, steadily increased to 4.04 billion KRW in 2019, 4.24 billion KRW in 2020, 4.55 billion KRW in 2021, and 4.98 billion KRW in 2022.
This trend is in stark contrast to most public institutions under the jurisdiction of the Planning and Finance Committee, such as the Export-Import Bank of Korea, which are reducing their annual leave compensation amounts.
The current Labor Standards Act (Article 61) states that "if the employer implements measures to promote the use of paid annual leave, and the worker does not use the leave despite these measures, the employer is not obligated to compensate for unused leave."
Based on this, other public institutions such as the Export-Import Bank and the Korea Investment Corporation have internal regulations to promote the use of annual leave, but it has been confirmed that KOMSCO does not have such internal regulations.
Assemblyman Han Byung-do pointed out, "Paid annual leave is granted to guarantee workers' right to rest and to support work-family balance. Not using annual leave simply to receive monetary compensation is a reversal of priorities and does not align with the purpose of granting annual leave."
He added, "The labor and management of KOMSCO should put their heads together to improve internal systems that promote the use of annual leave."
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