The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) said on the 1st it will conduct a planned inspection of 100 business sites nationwide to eradicate the practice of long working hours.
This planned inspection is a follow-up measure to establish a post-approval oversight system for special extended work, one of the tasks in the "road map to cut actual working hours" agreed to by labor, management, and the government in Dec. last year. Special extended work is a system that, to strengthen national competitiveness and for other reasons, allows extended work beyond 52 hours a week with MOEL approval.
MOEL plans to check compliance with the statutory limit on extended work and whether premium pay is provided for extended, night, and holiday work. It also plans to verify whether business sites using special extended work comply with the approved extended hours and whether appropriate rest time is provided to protect workers' health.
For business sites willing to voluntarily correct legal violations, the ministry will support the "win-win workplace innovation consulting" program. It will also encourage links to government support programs such as the "Work-life balance + 4.5 project," which provides up to 600,000 won per employee to small and midsize companies that cut actual working hours, including adopting a 4.5-day workweek, without reducing wages.
Minister Kim Young-hoon said, "We will sternly crack down on habitual violators and, alongside government support, will ensure that unreasonable long-hours practices in the field are decisively improved."