ENGLISH

An employer shall permit an employee when an employee applies for a leave of absence to urgently take care of his/her family (hereinafter referred to as “short-term family care leave”) because of a disease, accident, old age, or child-rearing of a grandparent, parent, spouse, spouse’s parents, children, or grandchildren (hereinafter referred to as “family”) (the main body of Article 22-2 (2) of Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

If giving a short-term family care leave at the time requested by the employee is a significant disruption to normal business operations, then the employer can change the time in consultation with the employee (proviso to Article 22-2 (2) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

The short-term family care leave period is up to 10 days per year and can be used on a daily basis (the main body of Article 22-2 (4), subparagraph 2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

However, the short-term family care leave period is included in the family care leave (proviso to Article 22-2 (4), subparagraph 2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

The short-term family care leave period is included in the service period. However, it is excluded from the average wage calculation period under Subparagraph 6 of Article 2 (1) of the Labor Standards Act (Article 22-2 (6) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

Employers who receive an application for short-term family care leave and do not allow it will be fined up to KRW 5 million (Article 39 (2), subparagraph 8 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

Where there are descendants of grandparents or grandchildren other than employees who have applied for a short-term family care leave to take care of grandparents or grandchildren, the employer does not allow a short-term family care leave (the main body of Article 22-2 (2) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act and the main body of Article 16-3 (2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

However, if an employee is required to take care of a lineal descendant of grandparents or a lineal ascendant of grandchildren because of illness, old age, disability or underage, the short-term family care leave should be allowed (proviso to Article 16-3 (2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

An employee who wishes to apply for short-term family care leave shall submit to his/her employer documents (including electronic documents) clarifying the scheduled start date of leave, the name and birthdate of the family member, the reasons for requiring the care, the date of application, and the name of the applicant (Article 22-2 (9) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act and Article 16-2 (4) of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).