10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10802
Under the emphasis on maintaining employment relations as a priority to tackle with rising labor issues by COVID-19, measures targeted for small and medium sized enterprises, self-employed persons and working parents have been addressed by legislative revision alongside with social dialogue, with some challenges still left behind.
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1561-8048
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Sion Gil
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Health and safety
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Republic of Korea
Text.Serial.Journal
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13
National Reports
2020-04-15
2020-04-14
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
ILLeJ
Sion Gil
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10802
Leiden University
1561-8048
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Health and safety
en
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Republic of Korea
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/10802/10713
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Republic of Korea                                   Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Sion Gil                                                                    Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
s.gil@umail.leidenuniv.nl                                     Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                          ISSN 1561-8048
                                                           https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10802




        COVID-19 and Labour Law: Republic of Korea
                        Sion Gil *

                                             Abstract
     Under the emphasis on maintaining employment relations as a priority to tackle with rising
     labor issues by COVID-19, measures targeted for small and medium sized enterprises, self-
     employed persons and working parents have been addressed by legislative revision alongside
     with social dialogue, with some challenges still left behind.
     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour law; Employment maintenance allowance; VAT and tax relieve;
     Health and safety.




    The first case of COVID-19 in Korea was confirmed in late January 2020, upon which
 the Korean Government announced that the country is in a state of emergency. Although
 not in a lockdown, it was highly recommended to close crowded place, such as religious
 buildings, especially for as long as measures on social distancing apply. Korea also applied
 massive testing, including people that showed mild symptoms. Mid-February over 10,000
 people were tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Since then the number of newly
 infected persons showed a drastic decrease to less than 50 people per day as of April 10th.
    In the field of labour, the foremost priority of the government measures has been
 emphasized on maintaining employment relations1. In this report I will address the
 measures that are most relevant for employment relations and working conditions. I will
 also describe how these measures were designed, with special attention to what extent
 social partners have been involved. Lastly, I will discuss some remaining challenges not
 adequately covered by measures (yet).

    The Korean Government has provided a special allowance to support the maintenance
 of the employment relationship. An allowance is provided when the employer is unable to
 carry on the business due to financial burdens but maintains the employment relations,
 either by putting his workers on paid leave or paid suspension. On 25 March 2020 the
 Ministry of Employment and Labor (MEL) announced that the legislation providing for
 the allowance, the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act, will be revised.
 The main points of revision are an increase of the allowance from 75% to 90% of wages

 *
  Student in the Adv. LL.M. Global and European Labour Law at Leiden University.
 1Ministry of Employment and Labor (MEL),
 http://www.moel.go.kr/skin/doc.html?fn=20200409175541cf075783e69d4067b1ffb7a619be97b3.hwp&rs=
 /viewer/ENEWS/2020/ accessed 10 April 2020.
    Sion Gil                                                                       Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                                  Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                     Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                       Section: National Reports




and a broadening of the personal scope making all the sectors in small and medium sized
enterprises eligible for the allowance. Such a broad scope is unique in the history of Korea2.

   Another measure of relevance to mention here is a revision of the Restriction of Special
Taxation Act, which has been approved by the parliament. It is a temporary revision by
which the Korean Government aims to alleviate the financial burden of self-employed
persons through a reduction of the VAT and taxes for medium sized enterprises in the
region that has been designated as a disaster zone3.

    In the context of occupational safety and health the MEL has issued a guideline on
teleworking with regard to areas such as working hours, extended working hours, service
provision and industrial accident4. For example, extended and night-time working hours
shall be paid as overtime pay and injury or disease that has occurred upon teleworking falls
under occupational accident5. In addition, with the indefinite suspension of daycare centers,
kindergartens, and schools, which have transformed to remote teaching families are facing
challenges combining work and care responsibilities. Therefore, the government’s
allowance support for short-term family care leave, has been extended from five to ten days.

        The first tripartite declaration to seek cooperation to overcome the COVID-19 crisis
    was concluded by the Economic, Social and Labour Council (ESLC), which is a
    presidential advisory body specifically for social dialogue. Additionally, the Healthcare
    Sector Committee, which is part of the ESLC, released a statement on the protection of
    healthcare workers.6 Social partners were also involved in an urgent policy discussion
    which was initiated by the ruling party on the revision of legislation to support small and
    medium sized enterprises and self-employed workers7. The employer’s representative
    called for measures on economic promotion and the worker’s representative addressed
    issues on labour rights for vulnerable groups and emphasized stable employment.




2MEL, <http://www.moel.go.kr/news/enews/report/enewsView.do?news_seq=10822> accessed 10 April
2020.
3 차지연 & 홍규빈, '기재위, 코로나세법 의결…영세 자영업자 부가세 한시적 감면' 연합뉴스 (Seoul,
17 March 2020).
4 MEL,

<https://www.moel.go.kr/skin/doc.html?fn=20200402173357bedd41e7ff9e4282ae793605caffc407.hwp&rs
=/viewer/ENEWS/2020/> accessed 12 April 2020.
5 Individual cases are determined by the Korea Workers' Compensation & welfare Service.
6 The main statements are on i) creating a labor environment which can ensure the safety of healthcare

service, ii) improving job security and treatment for healthcare workers, iii) coping with the shortage of
medical supplies and building a sustainable healthcare system, and iv) enhancing public healthcare capabilities
and collaboration with the private healthcare sector. The agreement was reached by means of paper-based
decision-making amid the outbreak. For the agreements, see:
<http://english.eslc.go.kr/bbs/data/list.do?menu_idx=2102> accessed 12 April 2020.
7이보배, '민주, 코로나19 피해 자영업 지원법 다음 임시국회서 추진키로' 연합뉴스 (Seoul, 25 March
2020).

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10802                                                                    2
    Sion Gil                                                               Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                          Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                             Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                               Section: National Reports




        Amid these law revisions and countermeasures, grey areas need to be tackled in
    employment relations and working conditions. The Labor Standards Act (LSA) establishes
    the terms and condition of employment of workers, by its provision on minimum wage,
    collection of insurance premiums, employment insurance and industrial accident
    compensation insurance. However, workers such as platform workers, self-employed
    persons, domestic workers and workers in the special type of employment whose status
    are between employee and self-employed are excluded from the scope of LSA and its
    protections. Furthermore, Article 46 LSA states that the obligation to provide shutdown
    allowances by the employer arises if the cause of the shutdown of a business is attributable
    to him/ her. Therefore, if the outbreak is recognized as force majeure, employees under
    LSA such as sub-contracted workers and fixed-term workers at schools, are also left
    vulnerable.

   With regard to general health and safety issues, the Korean Government has introduced
a public rationing system to deal with the limited supply of and soaring demand for face
masks. However, this system is out of reach for migrant workers who reside in Korea for
less than 6 months or who are working at an unregistered workplace and consequently are
not covered by the National Health Insurance Act. They may receive support in other
ways, but the threshold in the law deters them from the publicly provided masks in times
of (a health) crisis. Lastly, although Article 50 ALS prescribes that an additional benefit,
such as sickness allowance, may be provided, it is known to be non-existent in practice.
This is a consequence from the fact that the enforcement decree to the ALS does not
extend to the sickness allowance. Even when it is possible to rely on such an allowance,
because such has been agreed upon in a collective labour agreement, in general the period
is (too) short and workers face practical difficulties claiming it for non-work related
sickness. Therefore, as alternative, employees may rely on annual leave or unpaid leave
instead8. These precarious situations need further legislative attention.




Copyright © 2020 Sion Gil. This article is released under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License




8서한기, '아프면 쉰다' 직장 소득보전 가능할까…"아직 현실과 먼 얘기"' 연합뉴스 (Seoul, 23rd
March 2020).

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10802                                                            3
