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The causes for terminating a labor contract are as follows: 1) The termination is made based on the will or intent of the employee (retirement: voluntary retirement, mandatory retirement); 2) The service is terminated without the consent, or against the intent, of the worker (dismissal: regular dismissal, dismissal as part of punishment, dismissal due to a management reason); 3) The employment relationship ends regardless of the intent of the employee and employer (automatic dissipation: expiration of contract period, completion of project, death of worker, termination of company) ◎ For contracts with a defined period, or contracts with a term as prescribed in the subparagraphs of Article 4(1) of the Act on the Protection etc. of Fixed Term and Part-Time Employees, when the term of the labor contract is terminated, in principle, the labor service is terminated unless there are special circumstances that render otherwise. ◎ Therefore, if the contract period expires, there is no obligation for management to send out an advance dismissal notice. However, making a pre-notice may reduce the possibility of conflict between the parties, as it announces that the labor service shall be terminated with the expiration of the work period.

The matters discussed and decided by the Labor-Management Consultation Council are prescribed in Article 20 (Matters for Consultation), Article 21 (Matters for Resolution) and Article 22 (Matters for Reporting) of the Act on the Promotion of Workers' Participation and Cooperation. Matters for Consultation (Article 20) – Improvement of productivity and distribution of attained results – Recruitment, placement, education, and training of workers – Resolution of workers' grievances – Improvements in working environment such as safety and welfare; promotion of workers' health – Improvement of human resources and labor management systems – Adjustment of general employment rules, such as manpower repositioning, retraining, and dismissal for managerial or technological reasons – Administration of work hours and break times – Improvement of systems, such as wage payment method and structure – Introduction of new machinery and technologies; improvement of work processes – Establishment or amendment of work/operation rules – Employee stock ownership plan and other assistance to build workers' assets – Matters on remuneration for an employee invention, etc. – Improvement of workers' welfare – Installation of surveillance equipment for workers within a workplace – Protection of motherhood for female workers; assistance in balancing work and home life – Prevention of sexual harrassment in the workplace or sexual harrassment by customers, as per subparagraph 2 of Article 2 of the Equal Employment Opportunity and Work Family Balance Assistance Act – Other matters regarding cooperation between labor and management Matters for Resolution (Article 21) – Establishment of a basic plan for education/training and capability development of workers – Establishment and management of welfare facilities – Establishment of an in-house employee welfare fund – Matters that are not resolved by the grievance handling committee – Establishment of various labor-management joint committees Matters for Reporting (Article 22) – Matters concerning overall management plans and actual results – Matters concerning quarterly production plans and actual results – Matters concerning manpower plans – Economic and financial conditions of the enterprise

Article 6 of the Act on the Promotion of Workers' Participation and Cooperation states that a council shall be composed of the same number of members representing workers and employers, and each number of members shall be not less than three but not more than 10 persons. Also, Article 12(1) of the same Act states that a council shall hold meetings regularly every three months. ◎ The labor-management council meetings shall open with the attendance of the respective majorities of autonomously elected (commissioned) workers' members and employers' members. If the meeting fails to be held on the ground deemed not to be the fault of the employers, such as workers' failure to elect workers' members, it does not constitute failure to fulfil the obligation to hold the labormanagement council meeting set by Article 12(1) of the same Act. ◎ Article 10(1) of the same Act states that any employer shall neither intervene in nor interfere with an election of workers' members. However, if the labor-management council is not organized for reasons such as workers' reluctance to elect the workers' members, the employer should make reasonable efforts to inform through internal communications and company notice boards the need of the labor-management council and autonomous election of the workers' members. If needed, the employer should make reasonable efforts such as asking the regional employment and labor agency governing the concerned workplace to support the workers' members' election.

A labor-management council refers to a consultative body formed to help promote peace in industry and to contribute to the development of the national economy by increasing common interests of labor and management through mutual participation and cooperation by workers and employers under Article 1 of the Act on the Promotion of Workers’ Participation and Cooperation. According to Article 4 of the same Act, the labor-management council shall be established at each business or workplace which is vested with the right to decide working conditions: Provided, That this shall not apply to any business or workplace employing less than 30 people on a regular basis. ◎ A trade union refers to an organization aimed at maintaining and improving the working conditions of workers and enhancing their economic and social status by guaranteeing the rights of association, collective bargaining, and collective action as prescribed in the Constitution, and contributing to the maintenance of industrial peace and the development of the national economy by preventing and resolving industrial disputes through the fair adjustment of the labor relations under Article 1 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. According to Article 5 of the same Act, workers shall be free to establish a trade union or to join it: ◎ The labor-management council represents all workers in activities that promote the common interests of labor and management, and in consultations or decisions for labor and management. In contrast, the trade union represents its members in collective bargaining and making a collective agreement for maintenance and improvement of working conditions. Particularly, the rights to collective actions such as industrial actions are guaranteed for the trade union.

If the employment status has been modified from a fixedterm worker to a temporary agency worker merely to evade the maximum contract period limit for a fixed-term worker (two years), this is technically considered a measure to avoid the regulations of Article 4 of the Act on the Protection, etc. of FixedTerm and Part-Time Workers. In this case, it should be deemed that the fixed-term worker is hired for more than two years under Article 4(2) of the same Act, and it is reasonable to regard the worker as having signed a non-fixed term employment contract.

A part-time employee means an employee whose contractual work hours per week are shorter than those of a full-time employee engaged in the same kind of work at the workplace concerned. Some regulations do not apply to part-time employees whose work hours are significantly shorter than those of a fulltime employee (those who work less than 15 hours per week). The relevant laws are as follows: ◎ Article 8(2) of the Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-Term and PartTime Workers states that no employer shall give discriminatory treatment to any part-time employee on the ground of his/her employment status compared with full-time employees engaged in the same or similar kinds of work at the business or workplace concerned. There is no different treatment per the length of the work hours among part-time employees. ◎ The Labor Standards Act states that the terms and conditions of employment of part-time employees shall be determined on the basis of the relative ratio computed in comparison to those work hours of full-time employees engaged in the same kind of work at the pertinent workplace. It also states that the criteria and other necessary matters to be considered shall be prescribed by Presidential Decree. However, according to Article 18(3) of the same Act, holidays (Article 55) and annual paid leaves (Article 60) do not apply to employees whose contractual work hours are significantly short (those who work less than 15 hours per week). Therefore, not applying the holiday and annual paid leave clauses to employees who work less than 15 hours per week on an average of four weeks cannot be considered discriminatory treatment.

The discrimination rectification system was newly introduced under the Act on the Protection, etc. of Fixed-Term and Part-Time Workers and the Act on the Protection, etc. of Temporary Agency Workers. It was introduced to prohibit unfavorable treatment against non-regular workers on the ground of his/her employment status compared with other workers engaged in the same or similar kind of work at the business concerned in terms of wages or other working conditions without any justifiable reasons. The aforementioned non-regular workers include fixed-term employees, part-time employees, and temporary agency workers, while the aforementioned other workers include non-fixed term contract workers, full-time employees, and directly-employed workers. Any non-regular worker who has received discriminatory treatment may request a correction to the Labor Relations Commission. ◎ The prohibition of discriminatory treatment against non-regular workers is not meant to demand the same treatment as regular workers in all working conditions, but to ban unfavorable treatment without any reasonable ground. Different treatments are allowed on reasonable grounds, such as differences in labor intensity, labor quality, authorities, and responsibilities. The discrimination rectification system for non-regular workers applies to all businesses or places of business with five full-time employees or more.