Advance Notice of Dismissal · Dismissal Notice Allowance
Advance Notice of Dismissal
What is advance notice of dismissal?
- 30 days’ notice, or 30 days’ ordinary wage
- Notice and justification are two entirely separate issues
- Separate written notice of the reason and date is required
Dismissal notice does not make dismissal easier. It changes the calendar at the moment of notification. In practice, this provision changes only two things: when you hand over the dismissal notice, and how much extra to pay if you could not give the full 30 days. It says nothing about whether you may dismiss at all. That is why a dismissal with flawless notice procedure can be overturned, while an immediate dismissal with no notice can be upheld as justified, even in the same month.
The exceptions are narrower than you might expect. They are limited to employees with less than 3 months of continuous service, cases where the business cannot continue due to a natural disaster or other unavoidable circumstance, and cases where an employee intentionally causes serious disruption to the business or financial loss; the last category follows criteria set by Ministry of Employment and Labor ordinance. The amount is at least 30 days of ordinary wage, not average wage. Many companies overpay by adding bonuses or overtime pay to the calculation. Notice of less than 30 days, such as 20 days, is not recognized on a prorated basis; in practice, it is treated as requiring payment of the full 30 days’ allowance.
Advance notice of dismissal and written notification are separate provisions. Without a written notice stating the reason and date, the validity of the dismissal itself is in question; conversely, if the advance notice is given in writing and states the reason and date, it can also satisfy the notification requirement. An unfair dismissal remedy application must be filed with the Labor Relations Commission within 3 months of the dismissal. More importantly, even if a dismissal is ruled invalid, a notice allowance already paid is not automatically recovered.
The costliest misconception is that adding a month's pay makes it all go away quietly. If you pay the notice allowance and send the employee out with no warning letter and no chance to respond, the only evidence the company can attach to its answer in a relief petition is a payroll transfer record. You then face reinstatement plus back pay from the dismissal date to the ruling date, and the notice pay you already paid is a separate cost on top of that. Conversely, dismissing someone with neither notice nor pay makes you subject to the penalty provisions. The notice period, exceptions, and notification requirements can be amended, so check the latest statutes and review each case individually.
Hwi KimCEO of HRDIST & Talent Development Systems Consultant
Inwoo LeeExpert in Leadership, Communication & Performance ManagementThe Labor Standards Act requires 30 days' advance notice of dismissal, or payment of at least 30 days' ordinary wages in lieu, and sets out exceptions. It also separately requires written notice of the reason for and date of dismissal (Articles 26 and 27).
Consider a hypothetical case: Company A, a food manufacturer with 140 employees and annual revenue of about KRW 32 billion (≈ US$23,941,300). When one Production Team 2 worker piled up 7 unexcused absences over three months, the plant manager told HR, “I’ll tell them to come in only until next week.” The HR manager opened the payroll ledger, calculated 30 days of ordinary wage at KRW 2.9 (≈ US$1) million, and concluded that this money would settle it.
- When the HR manager asked, “Doesn’t paying KRW 2.9 million (≈ US$2,170) wrap this up?”, the outside labor attorney pointed out that there was no disciplinary committee record and no warning letter, and asked first for documents proving grounds for the dismissal.
- Together with the plant manager, they pulled three months of attendance records again and confirmed 7 unexcused absences and 12 late arrivals, but apart from three verbal reminders given at morning briefings, not a single written warning was on file.
- The company postponed the dismissal by two months and rebuilt the process with two written warnings and one opportunity to respond. When two more unexcused absences occurred in the meantime, it kept the disciplinary committee minutes and the employee’s written statement.
- Thirty days before the dismissal date, the company sent a notice stating the reason and date by registered mail. The HR manager rejected the shop-floor suggestion that “a text message is faster” and even filed the postal receipt in the HR file.
- The KRW 2.9 million (≈ US$2,170) notice payment was never needed. When a relief petition was filed three months later, Company A submitted the warning letter and disciplinary records and obtained a ruling dismissing the petition. The four months of back pay (KRW 11.6 million (≈ US$8,680)) that it paid in a similar case the year before did not come due this time.