This undated photo shows Naver Corp.’s headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Violations of the Labor Standards Act, including overtime work exceeding the statutory working hours, are rampant at Naver Corp., a recent survey showed.
The South Korean search giant’s labor union recently conducted a survey with of members belonging to the firm’s three CIC (Company in Company) units. The results showed that 10 percent of the respondents said that they had worked more than 52 hours a week in the past.
CIC is Naver’s unique system in which Naver treats business divisions with huge growth potential just like independent companies, giving them operational autonomy in HR and finance.
Under the current Labor Standards Act, the maximum weekly working hours for employees is set at 52 hours.
Company owners can be imprisoned for up to two years or levied a fine of up to 20 million won (US$18,000) if employees work more than the statutory working hours.
Gimmicks were used to avoid such penalties. There were some cases where employees were required to register less than actual working hours but more than actual rest hours on the in-house attendance management system.
The survey showed that some employees couldn’t even leave evidence that they worked more than 52 hours a week since they had to work during the temporary off-days created automatically after they worked more than the statutory working hours.
The union said that there were many situations in which employees couldn’t reject extra work due to responses to emergency failures and the impending release of new services.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
