Your Rights as a Worker in Korea

Korean labour law protects you on the same terms as a Korean national, and one protection goes further than most people expect. Industrial accident compensation is designed to cover the injured worker, and irregular immigration status does not remove the entitlement. A worker hurt on site should be claiming, not hiding.

That single fact has changed outcomes for people. The rest of this page is what else you are owed.

Your contract

A written contract is required, and it must state the essentials: wages and how they are calculated, working hours, rest days, holidays, duties and place of work.

Get it before you fly if you are recruited from abroad, and have it translated by someone unconnected to the employer or the agent. Keep your own copy in the language you signed. A contract you cannot read is the root of most of the disputes on this page.

Anything promised verbally - accommodation, a bonus, specific hours, a particular role - belongs in the written document or it does not exist.

Hours, rest and leave

	Broadly
Standard week	A statutory limit on normal hours
Maximum with overtime	A capped total per week, enforced unevenly by sector
Daily rest	A break once you pass a threshold of hours
Weekly rest	At least one paid day off per week for qualifying workers
Annual leave	Accrues with service, with a different rule in the first year
Public holidays	Paid for covered employees

The headline weekly cap exists and is real, but enforcement varies considerably by industry and employer size, and some smaller workplaces are exempt from parts of the framework. Ask about actual hours in an interview rather than assuming the statute describes the job.

Annual leave in your first year accrues differently from later years, which surprises people who expect a full allocation from day one. Unused leave may be payable on leaving. Payment covers how the premiums on extra hours are calculated.

Workplace injury

The most important entitlement on the page, so to be explicit about how it works:

• It covers injury, illness and death arising from work, including some commuting accidents.
• It is not dependent on fault. You do not have to prove the employer was negligent.
• It covers medical costs, a portion of lost wages, disability benefit and survivor benefit.
• It is not conditional on your immigration status being in order.
• It applies even where the employer failed to enrol you as they should have.

What you must do is make sure the injury is recorded as work-related from the very first medical visit. Reclassifying it later is far harder, and an employer who offers to pay cash to keep it off the books is protecting themselves, not you. Tell the hospital it happened at work. Medical and health covers treatment and billing.

The four insurances

Employers must enrol covered employees in national pension, health insurance, employment insurance and industrial accident insurance, and pay their share. Which apply to you depends on your visa category and the size of the workplace.

Two reasons to check your payslip against this. Unenrolled contributions are money you are owed. And an employer's non-compliance can surface at your own visa extension, where the office checks exactly this. Visa extension covers that risk.

Harassment, discrimination and dismissal

Workplace harassment is prohibited by statute, employers of a certain size must have a reporting procedure, and retaliation against someone who reports is itself unlawful. Sexual harassment has its own, stronger framework, and there are external bodies to go to when the internal route is the problem.

On dismissal, qualifying employees cannot be dismissed without just cause and proper notice, and a dismissal must be given in writing stating the reason. Unfair dismissal can be challenged, with a time limit that runs from the dismissal, so do not sit on it.

This is the point at which to get advice rather than act alone, and free services exist in multiple languages. Legal consultation covers them, and dispute information covers the filing process and the evidence.

Probation and fixed-term contracts

Two arrangements that get misdescribed to new arrivals.

Probation is permitted and a reduced wage during it is allowed within limits, but it is not a period in which you have no rights. Dismissal during probation still needs a reason connected to your suitability for the job, and the floor under your pay does not disappear. A probation period of unusual length, or one extended repeatedly, is worth questioning.

Fixed-term contracts are common and lawful. The important feature is that where fixed-term employment continues beyond a defined total period, the law can treat the worker as being on an open-ended contract, which is a protection rather than a technicality. Repeated short renewals that keep you just under a threshold are a pattern worth noticing.

Neither of these changes your entitlement to severance once you pass a year of continuous service, and continuity is not automatically broken by a renewal. Payment covers the calculation.

Changing employer

On an employer-tied visa this needs immigration approval and is limited in number. The distinction that matters: where the reason is the employer's fault - unpaid wages, closure, abuse, conditions breaching the contract - it generally does not count against your allowance.

Which is precisely why you document the reason at the time, in writing, rather than walking out and explaining later. Foreign workers covers this pressure point in full.

Where this goes wrong

• No copy of the contract in a language you read.
• Letting an injury be recorded as a private accident. The cover is yours.
• Accepting cash to keep an injury off the books.
• Not checking the four insurances appear on your payslip.
• Missing the time limit to challenge a dismissal.
• Leaving a bad workplace undocumented and forfeiting a transfer you were entitled to.

Where to go next

Payment covers wages, overtime and severance, and legal consultation covers free help in your own language.