KOMSCO’s Annual Leave Usage
Received as Compensation for Unused Leave
One day off in three years, received 21 million won ($17,600)
It was revealed that 25% of KOMSCO employees, amounting to 344 people, didn’t take a single day off last year. One employee only took a day off once in three years. There’s a reason why the annual leave usage rate is low…
According to the national audit data submitted by KOMSCO to Han Byung-do, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea in the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, the proportion of employees who didn’t take a single annual leave in the past five years was confirmed to be 9.8% in 2018, 16% in 2019, 29.9% in 2020, 29.5% in 2021, and 25.5% in 2022.
On the other hand, the number of employees who used all their granted annual leave was only one person (0.1%) in 2021 and eight people (0.6%) in 2022.
This is believed to be because if the corporation’s employees do not use their granted annual leave, the unused days are paid as compensation. In other words, they receive all their annual leave as money instead of taking a break. The scale of the yearly unused leave compensation was also exceptional.
Employee A was granted 75 days of annual leave from 2020 to 2022 but used only one day, receiving 21.03 million won ($17,600) as compensation. Employee B did not use any of the annual leave granted in 2021 and 2022 and received 13.57 million won ($11,400), and Employee C also received 13 million won ($10,900) in 2019 and 2022.
The compensation for unused annual leave paid by KOMSCO has steadily increased over the past five years, reaching 5 billion won ($4.2 million) last year.
Netizens who heard the news reacted, such as, “Whether they use their annual leave or not, it’s the workers’ right. What’s the big deal?” “If they give me money for annual leave, I would work without taking a break. Money is better than rest”, “They must really enjoy working to that extent. Aren’t they resting by going to work?” and “Something smells fishy. They might have tricked us by not using their annual leave and took the day off.”
Meanwhile, according to Article 61 of the current Labor Standards Act, if the employer implements measures to promote annual paid leave and the workers do not use it despite these measures, the employer is not obligated to compensate for unused leave. While other public institutions such as the Export-Import Bank and the Investment Corporation have internal regulations to promote the use of annual leave, it was revealed that KOMSCO does not.
KOMSCO stated that they have not introduced a system to promote annual leave due to the nature of their manufacturing corporation, but they will discuss it internally.
By. Choi Eun Young
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