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Labor Relations

What is a Contractual Holiday?

10/1/2025
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Author:system
Article 55 of the Labor Standards Act guarantees one paid holiday per week, and the Act on the Establishment of Labor Day designates May 1 each year as Labor Day (May Day) as a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act. Therefore, the only holidays that are mandatorily paid by law are the weekly holiday and Labor Day, and general public holidays are not holidays that are mandatorily enforced on companies by law. Holidays such as public holidays or company foundation days are called contractual holidays because whether they are holidays or paid holidays is determined according to the employment rules or collective bargaining agreements. Therefore, the principle is that if 'paid' is not explicitly stated in the employment rules or collective bargaining agreements, contractual holidays are granted as unpaid. At this time, regarding contractual holidays stipulated in employment rules or collective bargaining agreements, the question arises as to whether provisions of the Labor Standards Act regarding holidays, such as premium pay for holiday work, apply. Case law recognizes that premium pay must be paid for contractual holidays in the same manner as statutory holidays. On the other hand, contractual holidays and days off must be distinguished. A holiday is originally a day on which there is a duty to work, but the duty to work is exempted by laws or labor-management agreements. In the case of shift work systems, a day off, which is generally stipulated, refers to a day that is not included in the prescribed working days and from the beginning there is no duty to work. The administrative interpretation of the Ministry of Employment and Labor states that since days off have a different nature from holidays, there is no obligation to pay premium wages for work on days off. However, there is also criticism that it is difficult to strictly distinguish between the nature of days off and holidays in practice. Holiday work, for which holiday work allowance must be paid by adding at least 50% of the regular wage pursuant to Article 56 of the Labor Standards Act, is not defined as holiday work under Article 55 of the same Act but is simply referred to as holiday work. Considering the context that it is stipulated together with overtime work and night work, it is not merely to maintain the principle of the weekly holiday system under Article 55 of the Labor Standards Act, but also interprets that even for statutory public holidays other than weekly holidays, if workers are inevitably required to work due to the employer's needs, they should be compensated with greater remuneration than on days when they have a duty to work. Therefore, it is reasonable to view that it refers not only to weekly holiday work under Article 55 of the same Act but also to work on statutory public holidays designated as holidays by collective bargaining agreements or employment rules (May 14, 1991, Supreme Court 90Da14089).

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