On January 21, 2015, Shin & Kim held a joint seminar entitled “Major Labor Law Precedents of 2014 and Management of Human Resources and Labor Relations in Business” with the Korean Chamber of Commerce.

At the seminar, Dong-Wook Kim, a human resources and labor relations specialist at Shin & Kim, discussed why the ordinary wage issue should be resolved through negotiations and could be used as an opportunity to transform the current wage structure into a job and performance-based system. Mr. Kim also recommended businesses to consider reforming shift-work systems and introduce “smart working” and flexible work-hour systems in preparation for reduced working hours. On the subject of termination, Mr. Kim pointed out that an employer’s efforts to avoid terminating an employee and the reasonableness in selecting employees to be terminated would be important criteria in determining the existence of just cause. In relation to internal subcontracted worker cases, Mr. Kim emphasized that it would be important to minimize the risk of hiring illegally dispatched workers by continuously paying attention to the appellate courts’ rulings.

The seminar was applauded by 170 officers and employees of various companies, commenting that it provided an opportunity to grasp the landscape of labor relations in Korea and legal guidelines on how businesses can develop strategies for human resources and labor relations issues, based on major precedents related to the Labor Standards Act, the Act on Protection, etc., of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees, the Act on Protection, etc., of Dispatched Workers, and the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act.