Hello, this is Attorney Choi Jong-Ha at Cheongchul Law Firm.

When you cannot come to work due to a severe cold, or when a sudden surgery requires several days of rest. Even if the illness is unrelated to your duties, can you immediately take sick leave? In short, unless the absence is caused by a work-related injury (Korean industrial accident, “sanjae”), there is no express provision for general sick leave under the Labor Standards Act or other Korean labor statutes.

No Express Sick Leave Clause in Korean Labor Law

Korean labor law regulates annual paid leave and various family- and maternity-protection leaves, but it contains no express provision for general sick leave arising from non-work-related injury or illness. Article 23(2) of the Labor Standards Act, which prohibits dismissal “during the period an employee suspends work for medical treatment of a work-related injury or illness, plus 30 days thereafter,” defines the outer boundary of protection, and its scope is limited to work-related injuries.

Accordingly, for non-work-related injury or illness, the Labor Standards Act does not automatically grant a right to leave. General sick leave is not “a right to rest whenever you are sick,” but a right that materializes only through employment rules, collective bargaining agreements, individual employment contracts, or established workplace custom. In a company without such internal rules, absences for non-work reasons are, in principle, deducted from annual paid leave—and where no annual leave remains, treated as unpaid absence.

Employers Are Bound by Their Own Sick Leave Rules

Of course, where the company’s internal rules do contain sick leave provisions, the employer cannot bypass or narrowly construe them at will. The requirements and procedures for sick leave set out in employment rules and collective agreements bind the employer as well, so a denial of a qualifying application without justifiable grounds may exceed the scope of personnel authority and become legally contestable. In particular, an employer’s unilateral conversion of an absence into a deduction from annual paid leave, without the employee’s consent, is not permitted.

Work-Related Suspensions Are Protected Directly by Statute

By contrast, suspensions due to a work-related injury are not a matter of internal rules. Article 23(2) of the Labor Standards Act bars dismissal during the period of medical-treatment suspension caused by a work-related injury, plus 30 days thereafter, providing an absolute restriction on dismissal to protect injured workers. Separately, the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act guarantees livelihood during suspension through temporary disability benefits set at 70% of average wages.

Thus, even where the form of absence is the same, if its cause is tied to work, the statutory protection regime applies regardless of whether internal sick leave rules exist. “An absence due to a bad cold” and “an absence due to a work-related injury” may look alike on the surface, but their legal weight points in nearly opposite directions—and that is the decisive difference between general sick leave and a work-related accident.