The current Act prohibits discriminatory treatment without just cause to any fixed-term or part-time worker engaged in the same or similar kind of duties on the ground of his/her employment status. The “disadvantageous treatment” includes a wage defined in Article 2 (1) 5 of the Labor Standards Act, bonus, performance-based pay, other matters related to working conditions, welfare, etc.
The court and the Labor Relations Commission judge whether a duty falls under “the same or similar kind of duties” by comprehensively considering the nature and contents of the main duties, the degree of authority and responsibilities in the course of executing the duties, the working conditions, etc.; the court and the Labor Relations Commission judge the phrase "without just cause" as the meaning that the need to differently treat fixed-term workers is not permitted or that even if the necessity of different treatment is permitted, the method or degree is not appropriate.
However, while the current Act prohibits wage discrimination based on the type of employment without just cause, there is no restriction on differentiating wage systems, which is the basis for determining the basic pay between full-time workers and temporary workers. If in a business or workplace, full-time workers are applied a pay step and seniority-based pay, while temporary workers are applied a job function-based pay, the criteria for comparing wages between the two groups or individual workers shall be differentiated and, thus, it is difficult to decide whether the difference is disadvantageous treatment.
Therefore, to operate an effective discrimination correction system, it is necessary to limit the differential establishment of wage systems without just cause. Therefore, where wage systems are differentiated, the employer shall notify in writing and explain the reason, but if the employer did not notify and explain it, one and the same wage system is deemed to be applied and also, for other treatment such as wages and bonuses, the treatment difference that is not both notified in writing and explained shall be prohibited.
In conjunction with this, ensuring that temporary workers have the right to request information on the treatment of comparable workers, the amendment aims to prevent discrimination and allows the court and the Labor Relations Commission to make the information as the base of their judgments on discrimination to correct unreasonable discrimination and strengthen the protection of working conditions of fixed-term and part-time workers.

Details

A. No employer shall be able to apply a different wage system to fixed-term and part-time workers on the ground of their employment status from that of workers on non-fixed term contract or full-time workers without just cause; if any employer differentiates wage systems with just cause, he/she shall notify the relevant workers in writing and explain the reason and contents (Article 8 (3) newly inserted).
B. Also, for the treatment such as wages, bonuses, performance-based pay, welfare, etc., other than the wage system of the foregoing paragraph, if any employer applies a different treatment of temporary workers, he/she shall be obliged to provide written notice and explanation to the workers; otherwise, the different treatment is nullified, and one and the same treatment is deemed to be applied (Article 8 (4) newly inserted).
C. When a temporary worker requests information on the treatment of a comparable worker and the reason for the difference, guarantee the workers’ right to request information by requiring the user company to provide this information and impose obligations on the employer to explain (Article 8 (5) newly inserted).
D. Stipulate that the necessary matters for criteria for the same or similar kind of duties, the scope of establishing reasonable differences, procedures for disclosure of treatment-related information, etc., shall be prescribed by Presidential Decree (Article 8 (6) newly inserted).

- Where the wage system or treatment of fixed-term workers is differentiated, the employer shall be obligated to provide written notification and explanation (Article 8 (3) and (4)).
- Impose obligations on the employers to provide the information requested by fixed-term workers (Article 8 (5)).