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Recommendation to improve laws and policies to enhance working conditions of companies with five orless employees [2008] KRNHRC 17 (1 January 2008)

As worsening economic conditions increased the gap between rich and poor and an
increasing number of the working poor became serious social problems, the Commission
reviewed whether the Labor Standards Act should be applied to small companies with five
or less employees in order to protect the basic rights to work and survive of the working
poor.

After an investigation, the Commission found that the Labor Standards Act should
protect all workers, as it is the minimum legal protection for workers. It concluded that
there were no justifiable reasons for not applying the Labor Standards Act to small
companies with five or less employees, considering that all the other labor laws were
applied to all companies, regardless of their size.

Therefore, the Commission recommended that the Minister of Labor first apply the
provisions on eight work hours per day and overtime payment of the Labor Standards Act
to small companies with five or less employees, and then apply other provisions of the
Labor Standards Act in phase. It also recommended that the Minister of Labor improve its
capacity to monitor whether companies comply with the Act.