Minister Kim Jung-kwan of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said at the full session of the Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee on the 12th that "we are discussing special exemptions to make working hours more flexible in various forms, including 'white-collar exemption (exemption from working-hours regulations for high-income and research personnel)' and flexible work arrangements, within mega special economic zones."
Under the Labor Standards Act, a worker can work up to 52 hours a week. That is the statutory 40-hour workweek plus 12 hours of overtime. If, based on the same law, a flexible work arrangement is introduced through labor-management agreement, it suffices to meet the statutory average of 40 hours over up to six months. A worker can work 50 hours in a busy week and 30 hours in a slow week.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) believes that in industries where competition with global corporations such as semiconductors is intense, the current system alone is insufficient to strengthen industrial competitiveness. Even if a flexible work arrangement is introduced, overtime is limited to 12 hours per week, which is a representative constraint. MOTI is reportedly pushing to apply an exception to the 52-hour workweek for research and development staff at corporations located in mega special economic zones and to expand the overtime calculation unit from a week to a month, quarter, or half-year.
Japan, which has the same statutory working hours as Korea (40 hours per week), allows long overtime only for high-income professionals, taking into account negative public opinion about overwork. Taiwan allows all corporations to adopt a flexible working-hours system and permits adoption in shorter cycles of 2 to 8 weeks than in Korea.
◇ Japan allows overtime beyond a 40-hour week for high-income workers in five sectors, including R&D
In 2019, Japan, referencing the U.S. white-collar exemption, introduced the "highly professional system" limited to five sectors for those with annual income of 10.75 million yen (about 95 million won) or more. The five sectors are: ▲research and development (R&D) ▲financial product development ▲asset management and other securities trading ▲securities analysis (analyst) ▲consulting.
To introduce this system, a company must obtain the worker's written consent and go through a labor-management resolution. After adoption, workers can work beyond statutory working hours. The company must provide at least 11 consecutive hours of rest between leaving work and the next start time. In other words, one can work up to 13 hours a day. At least 104 days off per year must also be guaranteed.
◇ Taiwan's TSMC runs production lines around the clock... the secret is a flexible working-hours system
In Taiwan, through labor-management agreement, industries can operate flexible working-hours systems in units of 2, 4, or 8 weeks. The monthly overtime cap is 46 hours, but if labor and management agree, it can be expanded to up to 54 hours per month and 138 hours over three months combined.
Compared with Korea's flexible working-hours system, which is set in cycles of up to six months, the cycles are shorter. Shorter cycles allow corporations to respond quickly to sudden fluctuations in production volume. Workers' fatigue may also be relatively less than when cycles are longer.
Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) corporation, is said to be leveraging this to run its research and development (R&D) organization and production lines 24 hours a day. Instead of increasing one person's working hours, it operates by splitting shifts within legal limits into two shifts (12 hours each) or three shifts.