Unpaid Wage Complaint Case: A technical supervisor entered into an employment contract: KRW 5 mil.

Unpaid Wage Complaint Case: A technical supervisor at a construction company entered into an employment contract under which he would receive a monthly salary of KRW 5 million. However, one year after he began working, the company unilaterally reduced his wages and paid him only KRW 3 million per month. Two years later, the company asked him to sign a part-time employment contract. This part-time employment contract stated that his working hours would be 15 hours per week and that he would not be entitled to severance pay. The employee then resigned from the company and filed a complaint with the Labor Office. In his complaint, he claimed severance pay and the wage difference resulting from the salary reduction over the previous two years. The labor inspector ordered the company to pay severance pay calculated based on the employee’s average wages for the three-year period of employment. However, regarding the wages that had been reduced two years earlier, the labor inspector determined that the employee was deemed to have consented to the changed wage reduction because he had not raised an objection within three months. Accordingly, Labor Attorney Bongsoo Jung explained to the employee that he should receive the severance pay, but that he could not claim the wages that had been unilaterally reduced. If the company had unilaterally reduced wages collectively, it could be argued that such a reduction was invalid as a disadvantageous change to working conditions. However, in an individual case, under Article 28 of the Labor Standards Act, if a company unilaterally reduces an employee’s wages, the employee must file an application for remedy with the Labor Relations Commission within three months from the date of the wage reduction, claiming that the wage reduction constituted an unfair disciplinary wage reduction.