Defense Against a Wage Nonpayment Complaint | Assisting an Employer Client to Have All Wage Nonpayment Complaints Dismissed

Wage nonpayment refers, quite literally, to wages whose payment has been delayed or postponed.

It means an act in which an employer receives the provision of labor from an employee yet does not pay the wages owed in return.

For wages during employment (monthly salary, bonuses, other allowances, and the like), under the Labor Standards Act, wages are considered to be in arrears if payment is delayed even by a single day past the wage payment date.

∙Labor Standards Act, Article 43, Paragraph 2: Wages shall be paid at least once a month on a fixed date.

Representative types of wage nonpayment include simple nonpayment, nonpayment of allowances, violation of the Minimum Wage Act, and violation of the obligation to settle unpaid items.

To resolve wage nonpayment, one may use a petition or complaint, a civil lawsuit, or the simplified substitute payment system.

∙Petition/Complaint: An employee who has not been paid wages may demand payment of the overdue wages (petition) or request that the employer be punished for violating the Labor Standards Act (complaint).

An employer who fails to pay wages may be punished by imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won.

∙Civil Lawsuit: An employee who has not been paid wages may demand that the overdue wages be paid (petition) or request that the employer be punished for 🔗violation of the Labor Standards Act (complaint).

The employee may file a civil lawsuit with the district court having jurisdiction over the location of the business or the employee's residence, obtain a final judgment, and then carry out compulsory execution.

If you are an employer who has been unfairly subjected to a 🔗wage/severance pay claim complaint by an employee, how should you respond?

First, it is necessary to understand the situation and organize the materials.

You should review the employment contract setting out the employee's working conditions (wages, working hours, and the like).

After that, you should gather evidence such as salary transfer records, receipts, and pay statements so that the actual fact of wage payment can be confirmed.

Through records such as commuting logs and work schedules, you should examine issues relating to working hours and identify the differences between what the employee claims and the actual situation.

After that, it is important to prepare specific details and evidence regarding the amount of unpaid wages and the working hours claimed by the employee, in order to rebut them.

It is not easy for an employer to carry out this entire process and gather evidence alone.

Receiving the help of an attorney with relevant knowledge to respond to the employee's complaint can be the most convenient and secure approach.

The client's attorney argued that all salary and severance pay had already been paid.

The client's attorney proved, using account transfer records as evidence, that the full amount had been paid.

The employees also claimed that the client had not paid overtime allowances.

The attorney in charge argued that the client's business was a workplace with fewer than five employees.

Under Article 56 of the Labor Standards Act, overtime pay is recognized for overtime, night, and holiday work, but that provision applies under Article 11 of the same Act only to workplaces that ordinarily employ five or more employees.

The attorney in charge rebutted that, because the client's business does not constitute a workplace with five or more employees, there is no room to recognize overtime pay.