The Supreme Court ruled that when employees work every other day, their weekly paid holiday allowance should be lower than that of people who work five days a week. Until now, the formulas for calculating the allowance were the same for alternating-day schedules and five-day weeks, but the Supreme Court for the first time presented a formula that differentiates them. As a result, the weekly paid holiday allowance is expected to decrease for people who do short-term part-time work or work short hours as nonregular or regular employees.
The Supreme Court's Second Division (presiding Justice Oh Seok-jun) said on the 10th that it overturned and remanded a wage suit filed in 2019 by current and former drivers of a taxi company in Jinju, South Gyeongsang, sending it back in a ruling favorable to the company.
Under the Labor Standards Act, an employer must pay a day's wage as a weekly paid holiday allowance if an employee works 15 hours or more in a week. Based on a minimum hourly wage of 10,000 won, if a part-time worker works eight hours a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the weekly paid holiday allowance must be 80,000 won, the same as for an employee who works five days a week.
These taxi drivers worked eight hours a day on alternating days under a 2009 wage agreement. The company, however, reportedly reduced the prescribed hours per day to as little as two hours to avoid violating the Minimum Wage Act. Current and former drivers then sued, saying the company engaged in illegal conduct.
In this case, how to calculate the drivers' weekly paid holiday allowance was at issue. The courts of first and second instance calculated the weekly paid holiday allowance for alternating-day taxi drivers the same as for five-day workers, consistent with existing precedents.
However, the Supreme Court overturned the case and sent it back to the Busan High Court, saying the calculation method for the weekly paid holiday allowance was wrong. The Supreme Court said, "If the existing principle is applied as is, an employee whose prescribed number of working days per week is fewer than five will receive the same weekly paid holiday allowance as an employee with five or more days, even though the weekly prescribed working hours are fewer, creating an unreasonable result."
The Supreme Court said that when calculating the weekly paid holiday allowance, the number of prescribed weekly working hours should be divided by five days. For example, a person who works eight hours a day on alternating days works 24 hours a week; dividing this by five days yields 4.8 hours. Based on a minimum hourly wage of 10,000 won, the weekly paid holiday allowance is 48,000 won, which is 10,000 won multiplied by 4.8 hours. Under existing precedents, the allowance was 80,000 won, so it would be reduced to about half.