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- An employer must allow a recess during work hours of not less than thirty minutes for employees who work four hours in a day, or a recess of not less than one hour for employees who work eight hours in a day (Article 54(1) of the Labor Standards Act).

- Employees may freely use recess hours (Article 54(2) of the Labor Standards Act).

- Recess may be modified, however, when the employer in any one of the following businesses has agreed in writing with the employee representative (Article 59(1) of the Labor Standards Act). In such cases, the employer must give employees at least 11 hours of uninterrupted recess starting from the end of a working day to the beginning of the next working day (Article 59(2) of the Labor Standards Act).

- An employer must allow employees an average of at least one paid holiday a week (Article 55(1) of the Labor Standards Act).

- The Designation of Workers’ Day Act designates May 1 as Workers’ day, and provides that this date shall be a paid holiday under the Labor Standards Act Designation of Workers’ Day Act).

- An employer must grant 15 days of annual paid leave to any employee who has an attendance rate of at least 80% in a year (Article 60(1) of the Labor Standards Act).

- An employer must grant one day of paid leave for every month of full attendance to any worker who has been employed continuously for a period of less than one year or who has an attendance rate of less than 80% in a year (Article 60(2) of the Labor Standards Act).

- If a pregnant employee applies for a leave of absence for the purpose of maternity protection or an employee does so for the purpose of caring for a child (including an adopted child) of no more than eight years of age or the second grade of elementary school (hereinafter “childcare leave”), the employer shall grant it for up to one year (the main body of Article 19(1) and Article 19(2) of Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

- However, a business owner may refuse to allow childcare leave on the application of a worker who would have been continuously employed at the business for less than six months as of the date they seek to begin childcare leave (hereinafter “scheduled start date of childcare leave“) (the proviso of Article 19(1) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act; Article 10 of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

- Although a fixed-term employee’s childcare leave period is included in the period of continuous employment, it is excluded from the retention period under Article 4 of the Act on the Protection of Fixed-Term and Part-Time Employees. Therefore, the fixed-term employee may be converted to a contract worker not subject to a fixed-term employment contract only when the working period, excluding the childcare period, exceeds two years (Article 19(4) and (5) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

- When an employee applies for reduced work hours for a period of up to one year (or a period of up to a sum of one year and any unused period from childcare leave) to care for a child up to eight years of age or up to the second grade of elementary school, the business owner must allow it (hereinafter “reduced work hours for childcare”) (the main body of Article 19-2(1) and the proviso of paragraph 4 of the same Article of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

- When a business owner allows an employee reduced work hours for childcare, the reduced work hours must be at least 15 hours in a week and no more than 35 hours in a week (Article 19-2(3) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).

- However, reduced work hours for childcare may be refused if any one of the following applies (the proviso of Article 19-2(1) of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act; Article 15-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work-Family Balance Assistance Act).