52-hour-workweek rules to be tweaked if bill passes

Lee Jung-sik, labor minister, announces the government's working hour reform at the government complex in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

Maximum working hours could be increased to 69 hours a week from 52 under a bill proposed by the government.

If the law is passed by the National Assembly, people who work longer per week will get extra time off later.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor on Monday announced the proposal, saying that it hopes the new law will allow for more flexibility and give companies more options, especially small companies.

Under the bill, total working hours will remain at 52 a week. The difference will be that the companies will be able to calculate the average over longer periods of time: monthly, half-yearly or annually.

Currently by law, an employee can work no more than 40 hours a week with 12 hours of overtime.

Under the proposed law, if working hours are calculated monthly, the employee will have 52 hours of overtime available per month.

To prevent excessive work, maximum overtime will be capped.

For quarterly calculations, total overtime will be 90 percent of the possible hours, or 140. For half yearly calculations, it will be 80 percent of the 312 possible, or 250 hours. For annual calculations, it will be 70 percent of the possible 625 hours, or about 440 hours.

Employees working overtime will be guaranteed 11 hours of break. If not, the employee can cap the maximum weekly working hours from 69 to 64 hours.

“For 70 years we have maintained a unilateral and rigid working hour system that is only weekly,” said Lee Jung-sik, labor minister. “Neither the company nor the workers have had an opportunity to choose.”

He called the system "illegal and irrational.”

The minister stressed that Koreans worked 39 days a year on average more than the OECD average.

The 52-hour workweek regulation was adopted in 2018. Smaller businesses have been asking for more flexibility.

Under the current system, some businesses have been forced to hire additional workers or forgo orders

The government proposed changes will have to be passed by the National Assembly, where the Democratic Party has a majority of the seats.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]