[Weekly 52-Hour Workweek Manual] (Part 2) "Foreign Companies with Frequent Overseas Business Trips... Challenges in Calculating Flight Hours"

Introduction of the Deemed Working Hours System and Holiday Substitution System

Source=Korea Federation of SMEs

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing difficulties due to the government's introduction of the 52-hour workweek system. The Korea Federation of SMEs has created a manual titled "Preparing for the 52-Hour Workweek System" to help the system smoothly settle in the workplace.

This manual focuses on case studies encountered in the field and presents step-by-step solutions. It introduces methods for reducing working hours that SMEs can easily utilize.

Company C, a foreign cosmetics distributor, has its global headquarters in Europe. Therefore, employees often travel on business trips to the European headquarters. In particular, they sometimes work five weekdays and depart for Europe on Saturday. Internal discussions are underway to recognize this time as working hours.

Including waiting time at the airport and flight time, the 52-hour weekly limit is easily exceeded, and the time required varies depending on the flight situation for each person. There is concern about how to calculate this time and what system to implement to resolve overtime issues.

Since it is difficult to calculate the exact time for business trips, and even trips to the same location may vary in duration depending on circumstances, there is a system called the "Deemed Working Hours Outside the Workplace" which allows the usual time required for overseas business trips to be set by labor-management agreement and considered as working hours.

When adopting the deemed working hours system, the time typically required for travel to the business trip area and country is determined by labor-management agreement, and for overseas trips, waiting time at the airport should also be considered. For example, if an employee works three days in the office and two days on business trips in a week, the working hours are calculated by adding the office hours and the usual time required for work performed outside the workplace.

The labor-management agreement for implementing this system must be ▲written, ▲signed and sealed, and specify ▲the deemed working hours, ▲the applicable tasks, and ▲the validity period of the written agreement.

Photo by Jungso Gieop Junganghoe

Introducing a holiday substitution system, which allows employees to take a day off on another day instead of working on a holiday, is also a solution. The holiday substitution system only takes effect if the substitute holiday is designated and notified to employees at least 24 hours in advance; post-work substitution after working on a holiday is not allowed.

If employees are made to work on a holiday without prior notice, additional wages must be paid. Substitute holidays are possible for weekly holidays and public holidays, but substitution is not allowed for Labor Day (May 1st every year) even with labor-management agreement.

If the holiday substitution system is not implemented and employees work on weekdays and also have business trips on weekends, the 52-hour weekly limit may be exceeded. Employee dissatisfaction may also accumulate. By introducing the holiday substitution system so that employees traveling on weekends can take time off on weekdays in advance, companies can comply with the Labor Standards Act while improving employee satisfaction.

Even if the holiday substitution allows employees to rest the following week, the total working hours in a week cannot exceed 52 hours. Therefore, when employees travel on weekends, it is advisable to grant substitute holidays on weekdays during the business trip week.

Yang Okseok, Director of the Human Resources Policy Office at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "The goal of this working hours reduction guide was to make it easy for companies to understand," adding, "We have distributed 10,000 copies so far and plan to distribute more to companies that need the guide in the future."

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