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When concluding an employment contract, workers, who are in a lower economic and social position compared to the employer, are inevitably at a disadvantage. Therefore, the Labor Standards Act includes various protective provisions to prevent workers from entering into unfair employment contracts from a disadvantaged position. The employer's 'obligation to specify employment conditions' is one of them. In other words, according to the 'obligation to specify employment conditions' under the Labor Standards Act, the employer must clearly disclose to the worker the wages, working hours, and other employment conditions when concluding an employment contract. In particular, matters regarding the components of wages, calculation methods, and payment methods must be provided in writing.
The reason for imposing this obligation to specify employment conditions on the employer is to prevent workers from unknowingly accepting unexpected unfavorable employment conditions when entering into an employment contract. Especially to prevent disputes between employers and workers regarding wages and to use them as a basis for resolution in future disputes, matters concerning the components of wages, calculation methods, and payment methods must be specified in writing. Therefore, the hourly wage calculation method, fixed allowances, holiday and vacation allowances, overtime premium pay calculation, payday, whether payment is by bank transfer or cash, and whether it is monthly or weekly salary must be presented to the worker in writing.
In addition to wage-related matters, the employment conditions that must be specified are also those that must be included in the employment rules, but they do not necessarily have to be provided in writing. Even if the employer fulfills the obligation to specify employment conditions by detailing the employment conditions in the employment contract and presenting it to the worker, in reality, workers in a weaker position often do not carefully read the employment contract and raise objections when signing it, but instead sign it hastily without knowing what their employment conditions are.
In particular, there are many cases where workers cannot claim statutory allowances because the employment contract they signed without much thought includes a clause stating that 'overtime pay, night work allowance, holiday work allowance, etc., as per the Labor Standards Act, are all included in the agreed wage amount.' Therefore, when concluding an employment contract, workers must carefully review the presented wages and other employment conditions before signing, and also keep the employment contract.