Labour Standards Act, South Korea (Working Time)

There is a limit on working hours of 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. Overtime of up to 12 hours per week is permissible subject to the payment of an overtime premium. Employees in managerial or supervisory positions and employees handling confidential information are not subject to the statutory limits on working hours, though these exceptions are in practice quite narrow. Additional weekend hours (up to 16) have traditionally been allowed, but following recent amendments to the LSA hours of work done during weekly days off (generally Saturdays and Sundays) will be included in the calculation of “weekly” working hours, which means that in general employers will no longer be able to require an employee to work more than 52 hours over the seven days in the week. This amendment has taken effect for employers with 300 or more employees and most government-invested or government-controlled employers, and will be phased in for smaller employers on January 1, 2020 (50-299 employees) and July 1, 2021 (5-49 employees).