The Supreme Court has ruled that public employees who work in essential services must be compensated for overtime, even if it is less than one hour per day. This decision indicates that the government's internal guideline of requiring 'more than one hour of overtime per day' exceeds the scope of higher legal provisions.
According to Yonhap News on July 13, the Supreme Court's third division, led by Justice Oh Seok-jun, confirmed a partial victory for public employee A and others in their wage claim lawsuit against the state.
A and others, who are public employees under the Korea Post, have been classified as essential service workers, performing duties even on weekends and holidays.
Current regulations regarding public employee allowances state that essential service workers are to be compensated based on actual overtime hours worked. However, the government has included only those who work more than one hour of overtime in its compensation calculations, according to its internal guidelines.
A and others filed a lawsuit in March 2023, claiming they were denied some overtime pay due to this standard.
The first trial ruled against A and others, stating they were classified as essential service workers with separately defined working hours and days. However, the second trial accepted A's preliminary claim, stating that the 'one-hour per day standard' in the guidelines exceeded the delegation of higher legal provisions.
As a result, A is set to receive an additional payment of approximately 24,640 won for unpaid overtime from January 2022.
The Supreme Court echoed this judgment, stating, 'The internal guidelines impose additional restrictions on the scope of overtime pay that essential service workers are entitled to, despite lacking delegation from the higher legal provisions.' It added that these guidelines exceed the limits of the higher law and are therefore ineffective.
The Supreme Court noted that considering the nature of essential service workers' duties, the existing standard could adversely affect the calculation of their allowances.
Essential service workers already have meal and break times deducted when calculating monthly overtime hours. If overtime of less than one hour is excluded separately, it could lead to a 'double deduction' issue, where actual working hours are undercounted.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court pointed out that while general public employees are compensated for the one-hour deduction through fixed overtime allowances, essential service workers lack similar compensatory measures, potentially placing them at a relative disadvantage.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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