Supreme Court: "Maximum Annual Leave for 1-Year Contract Workers is 11 Days"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that employees with less than one year of service are entitled to a maximum of 11 days of annual leave. Earlier, in April, the Ministry of Employment and Labor explained that "annual leave is 26 days after one year of work."

On the 20th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Jo Jaeyeon) upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of plaintiff A, an operator of an elderly care welfare facility, in a damages lawsuit filed against the government and care worker B.

B worked at the nursing home operated by A from August 2017 to July 2018 and used 15 days of annual leave. Subsequently, the Ministry of Employment and Labor issued explanatory materials regarding the enforcement of the revised Labor Standards Act in 2018, stating that fixed-term contract workers with a one-year contract must be paid up to 26 days of unused annual leave allowance upon contract expiration.

Accordingly, B submitted a petition to the Uijeongbu branch of the Central Regional Employment and Labor Office, claiming unpaid annual paid leave allowance for 11 days.

However, A filed a lawsuit arguing that the government misinterpreted the Labor Standards Act. The first trial ruled against A, stating "the government's interpretation is reasonable," while the second trial ruled that "the right to use annual leave should be considered to arise the day after completing one year of work in the previous year, unless otherwise specified."

The Supreme Court also stated, "The reason for the amendment of the Labor Standards Act in November 2017 was to delete the provision that deducted paid leave used during the first year of work from the following year's paid leave, allowing employees to receive up to 11 days of paid leave in the first year and 15 days in the second year, respectively."

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