2017.8.22
Melanie Lo
The Ministry of Labor prescribed the Common Principles for Penalties Against Violations of the Labor Standards Law (hereinafter, the “Principles”), which consists of six points, via the MOL-Lao-Dong-One-1060131704 Circular of August 22, 2017. The Principles came into effect immediately.
Point 2 of the Principles requires competent authorities to impose penalties pursuant to general legal principles such as the principles of clarity, equality, and proportionality and to implement the statutory procedures under the Administrative Procedure Law and the Administrative Penalty Law.
Point 3 of the Principles specifically provides that when imposing sanctions, competent authorities shall base their penal standards on (1) the number of workers involved in a violation; (2) cumulative number of violations; (3) amount not paid pursuant to law; (4) culpability for violation of obligations under the Labor Standards Law (hereinafter, the “Law”); and (6) the financial strength of the penalized party.
In addition, for violations under Article 79, Paragraphs 1 through 3 of the Labor Standards Law, the penalties may be intensified by up to 50% of the maximum statutory penalties pursuant to Paragraph 4 of the same law. Point 4 of the Principles provides that the scale of a business organization shall be calculated by the number of people governed by this Law when the business organization which hires them violates any obligation under this Law. The number of people involved in the violation shall be determined by the number of people involved in such violation of the obligation under this Law by the business organization.
Point 5 of the Principles also provides that if a business organization violates the Labor Standards Law, competent authorities may, in addition to a fine, demand rectification within a specified period. If no rectification is made within the period, the fine shall be imposed repetitively.
Under Point 6 of the Principles, if a director or any individual with representative power of a business organization (1) causes, out of willfulness or gross negligence, the business organization to become punishable for violation of any obligation under this Law due to his/her act engaged to perform his/her job duty or to further the interest of the business organization; or (2) fails to perform his/her obligation to prevent the business organization from becoming punishable for violation of any obligation under this Law due to any act engaged by any clerk, employee or practitioner of the business organization to perform his/her job duty or to further the interest of the business organization, while the business organization is not a central or local agency or any other public law organization, such director or individual may be subject to the same fine under the same provision of the Labor Standards Law.