Supreme Court: "Night Shift Allowance Must Be Paid as Ordinary Wage Matching Hourly Rate"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that various allowances based on hourly wages must be paid based on the ordinary wages newly calculated by reflecting the minimum wage.

On the 31st, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Ahn Cheolsang) announced that it upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the final appeal of a wage claim lawsuit filed by 15 taxi company drivers, including Mr. A, against the company.

Mr. A and others had reached a wage agreement with the company in 2008, setting the hourly wage at 1,460 won, which was specified in the collective agreement and extended until June 2012.

However, after the minimum wage was raised, Mr. A and others filed a lawsuit against the company demanding payment of wages and allowances reflecting the minimum wage.

The first and second trial courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that "the difference between the minimum wage and the actual wages and allowances paid must be paid." The appellate court also agreed that wages reflecting the minimum wage must be paid but found issues with the calculation method used by the lower court and remanded the case.

The problem lay in the process of calculating night and overtime allowances reflecting the minimum wage. The lower court had ruled that night and overtime allowances should be paid at 0.5 to 1.5 times the minimum wage announced, based on the collective agreement that calculated these allowances on an hourly wage basis.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that the basic wage reflecting the minimum wage should first be calculated, and then night and overtime allowances should be recalculated based on the ordinary wages calculated from this. Accordingly, the remand court newly calculated the ordinary hourly wage by adding the hourly seniority allowance included in the ordinary wages to the hourly basic wage increased according to the minimum wage.

It then ruled that the company must additionally pay the difference between the recalculated night and overtime allowances based on the new ordinary hourly wage and the allowances already paid.

The final appellate court dismissed the appeal, stating, "The judgment to calculate the ordinary hourly wage reflecting the minimum wage and to additionally pay the difference in recalculated overtime and night work allowances based on this is legitimate according to relevant laws."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.