"Big Companies Are Different"... 9 Consecutive Days Off Until the 31st During Lunar New Year Holiday

LG Group Designates Day Off Without Using Annual Leave

With Monday the 27th recently designated as a temporary holiday, extending the Lunar New Year holiday to six days, there is a growing movement among large corporations to also designate Friday the 31st, a 'sandwich holiday,' as a designated day off or recommended day off. If this happens, people will enjoy a nine-day vacation from Saturday the 25th to Sunday the 2nd of next month.

LG Group has designated the 31st of this month as a company-wide day off.

Many LG Group affiliates, including LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Innotek, LG Chem, LG Energy Solution, and LG Household & Health Care, have designated the 31st as a company-wide day off. This is a paid holiday that does not require using annual leave. This aligns with the approach of LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, who has emphasized that "even when busy, taking rest to clear the body and mind is essential to fully engage in future endeavors."

Although not all large corporations offer paid holidays without using annual leave like LG Group, some designate the day off even if employees must use annual leave. Hyosung has designated the 31st as a company-wide day off. SK Hynix also operates designated holidays according to labor-management agreements, where if the day after Lunar New Year or Chuseok holidays (the day after the holiday itself) falls on a weekday, it is treated as a designated holiday. Thus, they will take collective annual leave on the 31st, resulting in nine consecutive days off. S-OIL announced its 2024 work calendar at the end of last year, designating the 31st as a day off where all employees use annual leave.

Lotte Energy Materials takes days off on sandwich holidays under the name 'Work-Life Balance Day.' Hyundai Motor and Kia will rest on the 27th temporary holiday, the 28th to 30th Lunar New Year holidays, and also on the 31st. Hyundai Motor Group affiliates such as Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Wia, and Hyundai Steel will also have the same schedule through the 31st, based on labor-management collective agreements.

GS Group’s holding company, GS Corporation, automatically designates the day after the holiday, the 31st, as a holiday according to employment rules. Doosan Group’s main affiliates, Doosan Enerbility and Doosan Bobcat, have also designated the 31st as a day off.

However, many workers still do not receive guaranteed rest even on designated temporary holidays. According to a 2023 survey conducted by Workplace Gapjil 119 and the Beautiful Foundation targeting 1,000 workers aged 19 and above nationwide, 3 out of 10 workers (31.3%) responded that they cannot take paid leave on temporary holidays. Especially among non-regular workers, only 4 out of 10 (42.8%) can take paid leave, which is more than twice lower than the 86% rate among regular workers.

Responses also varied depending on workplace size, wage levels, and union membership. By size, 77.4% of private workplaces with 300 or more employees said paid leave was available. This was followed by 73.2% for workplaces with 30 to fewer than 300 employees, 69.6% for 5 to fewer than 30 employees, and only 47.3% for workplaces with fewer than 5 employees, showing that the smaller the workplace, the lower the rate of paid leave availability.

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