Rest breaks and holidays · Weekly holidays and public holidays
Rest Time & Holidays
What are rest breaks and holidays?
- Rest counts only if employees can use it freely
- Paid weekly and public holidays are the key issue
- Holiday substitution must follow the legal procedure
What rest and holiday rules actually change is the formula for “how many hours did they work.” If you add a 1-hour break to an 8-hour shift, the company holds the employee for 9 hours but pays for 8. If that hour includes taking calls, all 9 hours become working time, with 1 hour of overtime premium on top. The same goes for the weekly holiday. The reason monthly scheduled hours for a 40-hour-week employee come to 209 rather than 174 is that 8 paid weekly-holiday hours are added on top, and whether you comply with the minimum wage depends on this number. Rest and holidays are not a perk; they are the base unit of wage calculation.
The standards are relatively clear. Breaks must be given 'during' working hours: at least 30 minutes for 4 hours of work and at least 1 hour for 8 hours, unpaid as a rule, and tacking them on at the end of the workday does not count. The weekly paid holiday is granted with pay to employees who meet two conditions: at least 15 contracted hours per week and full attendance on all scheduled working days. Employees on very short hours, under 15 a week, therefore do not earn weekly holiday pay. Paid status for public holidays and substitute holidays now applies to all workplaces with 5 or more regular employees, and the holiday work premium is 50% for up to 8 hours and 100% for hours beyond 8.
The line between a holiday and a non-working day is where things often get tangled. On a five-day week where Sunday is the weekly paid holiday, Saturday is usually an unpaid non-working day, so Saturday work is treated as overtime, not holiday work. Substituting holidays also has different requirements by type. Moving a public holiday to another day requires a written agreement with the employee representative, while substituting a contractual holiday or the weekly holiday requires a basis in the rules of employment or individual consent, plus advance notice.
The most common misconception is that 'we told them to rest, so it counts as a break.' If a worker stayed at their post during a break on a restaurant floor or in a call center and served a customer, that time reverts to working time, and up to three years of wages plus premium pay can be claimed at once. Another common mistake is treating public holidays as annual leave. Making employees take a public holiday off and deducting annual leave without a written agreement triggers both an unused-leave pay claim and wage arrears at the same time. Saying the monthly salary already includes weekly holiday pay only holds up if the pay slip itemizes the weekly holiday portion, and disputes shrink when the employment contract also states that weekly holiday pay is unpaid for a week with an absence.
Hwi KimCEO of HRDIST & Talent Development Systems Consultant
Jongmu KimSpecialist in corporate talent development and job competency buildingThe Labor Standards Act requires rest breaks based on working hours and at least one paid holiday per week (the weekly paid holiday). Paid status for public holidays has been phased in by workplace size (Articles 54 and 55).
Company A runs 3 logistics centers in the Seoul metropolitan area (180 employees, day and night shifts, KRW 42 billion (≈ US$31,423,000) in annual revenue). In its first-half 2024 wage review, it found that public holidays were handled differently from crew to crew. The night crew was paid at the weekday rate even when working on a public holiday, and crew members stayed on standby with radios on during their 1-hour break. (Hypothetical example)
- When the HR director pulled the attendance ledger for the past six months, it showed 42 night-shift workers who had worked on 8 public holidays and received base pay only, with no premium.
- After the advisory labor attorney put it bluntly, saying “if they are holding a radio, that hour is working time, not a break,” the center manager drew up a plan to add 2 standby staff per crew and take the 60-minute break off the line entirely.
- Through a written agreement with the employee representative at the labor-management council, the company replaced 9 of the 15 annual public holidays with team-designated days off and kept 6 days, including Lunar New Year and Chuseok, as paid holidays.
- The company confirmed that the 11 sorting part-timers working only 12 hours a week (3 days × 4 hours) were not eligible for weekly holiday pay. For 7 of them, it obtained their consent and raised scheduled hours to 16 per week, adding weekly holiday pay.
- After the settlement, the company paid back KRW 23.4 million (≈ US$17,500) in unpaid holiday premiums. Monthly labor costs rose 1.8%, but complaints to the labor office dropped from 3 in the second half to 0, and citations for missing rest breaks disappeared.