Two out of three workers in their 20s and 30s in Seoul work more than the legal 40-hour week, but systems for recording and managing their actual hours fall short, according to a survey released on the 13th. Even at workplaces that have time-tracking systems, about half of respondents said hours they actually worked were left out of the records. Labor advocates say that stamping out unpaid work caused by the misuse of all-inclusive wage contracts will require stronger rules requiring employers to record actual working hours accurately and to pay wages and allowances accordingly.
The survey of 500 wage earners aged 20 to 39 at workplaces in Seoul, conducted by Rep. Kim Joo-young of the Democratic Party of Korea and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, found that among the 332 respondents whose workplaces have a time-tracking system, 56% said some of the hours they actually worked over the past three months were not entered into the system. Those respondents reported an average of 2.27 unrecorded hours per week. Nearly 20%, or 19.9%, said five or more hours a week went unrecorded.
A substantial share of workplaces had no time-tracking system at all. Of all respondents, 33.6% said their company had no such system. At workplaces with fewer than 50 employees, 48.2% said there was no system — 2.6 times the 18.3% reported at workplaces with 1,000 or more employees. The smaller the workplace, the weaker the mechanisms for objectively verifying and managing working hours. The survey was carried out online using a structured questionnaire from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 by the polling firm Embrain Public, commissioned by Kim and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions.
Such gaps in working-hour records compound the difficulties facing young workers, who routinely put in overtime. Among respondents, 65.4% said their actual working hours over the past three months exceeded 40 hours a week. The largest group, 52.6%, worked more than 40 but no more than 49 hours a week, while 4.2% worked more than 52 hours. Long hours beyond the statutory limit are common, yet systems to record and manage them properly remain inadequate.
Procedures for approving overtime in advance are also often missing. Some 40.2% of respondents said their workplace had no approval process for overtime or holiday work, and the figure approached 56% at workplaces with fewer than 50 employees. With working hours going unrecorded and no prior approval process in place, workers can find it difficult to prove they worked extra hours and to claim the allowances they are owed.
Complaints about not being compensated for hours worked are widespread. Of those who had worked overtime, night or holiday shifts, 57.1% said they were not properly paid, and 35.5% said they received nothing at all. The most common reason cited for nonpayment was that their pay was all-inclusive, at 46.8%. More than half of all respondents, 53%, said all or part of their overtime, night and holiday allowances was built into their monthly salary in advance regardless of the hours they actually worked. Practices that block workers from being paid for the hours they put in — through all-inclusive wage contracts or fixed overtime pay arrangements — remain entrenched.
The government has begun inspections to curb the misuse of all-inclusive wage contracts, but concerns persist that the effort will have little effect unless working-hour management improves. The Ministry of Employment and Labor put guidelines against the misuse of all-inclusive pay into effect in April and has expanded related inspections. Under the guidelines, employers that have agreed to a fixed overtime allowance must pay the difference if the statutory allowance based on actual hours worked exceeds the agreed amount. Labor groups counter that the rules cannot be effective at workplaces where hours go unrecorded or where electronic records do not match the work actually performed.
"A good job starts with properly recognizing the value of labor and guaranteeing fair treatment for it," Kim said. "At the parliamentary audit, I will examine the overall working conditions of young people, including the misuse of all-inclusive wage contracts that drives overwork and unpaid labor."
Separately, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions held a press conference in front of Seongsu Station on the 7th to mark World Day for Decent Work and launched Seongsu Union Lab, a base for organizing young workers. The aim is to reach out first to young people who shoulder problems alone at workplaces without a union. Seongsu Union Lab is running a morning commute campaign at Seongsu Station along with an online "Seongsu pop-up store" that calculates the overtime pay a worker should receive based only on annual salary and average hours of overtime, and connects users to consultations with certified labor consultants through an anonymous KakaoTalk lounge.
"It is not that young people left unions — unions were not present in young people's workplaces," said Choi Mi-ra, standing vice president of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions. "We will start by working alongside young people to make sure they are properly paid for the hours they work."