A defensible termination begins before the dismissal letter. Where the Korean Labor Standards Act’s dismissal protections apply, an employer needs justifiable grounds and must follow required procedures. For employees covered by the Korean Labor Standards Act’s dismissal protections, an employer needs legally sufficient grounds and must satisfy applicable procedural requirements.
The commercial objective should be a defensible separation, not simply getting the employee out of the building. The following ten strategies provide an employer-side framework under South Korean law.
Start with an HR audit. Engage Korean employment lawyers to build systems that anticipate disputes, document problems, and guide managers before termination becomes necessary.
The current policy context also deserves attention. President Lee Jae Myung practiced as a labor and human-rights lawyer before entering politics. His administration has supported expanded worker protections, including union-law amendments effective March 10, 2026, that broaden collective-bargaining rights in subcontracting relationships. Employers should respond with stronger compliance – not assumptions about the outcome of individual cases.
1. Start with a Lawyer-Led HR Audit
Before addressing a particular employee, assess the company’s employment practices. Have Korean employment lawyers review employment agreements, rules of employment, collective agreements, job descriptions, performance evaluations, disciplinary procedures, payroll, working hours, leave, retirement benefits, and complaint handling. Compare the documents with what managers actually do.
Confirm which legal protections apply. The principal just-cause, written-dismissal-notice, and Korean Labor Relations Commission unfair-dismissal provisions generally apply to workplaces regularly employing five or more employees. Smaller workplaces remain subject to other obligations, including advance notice and protected-period restrictions.
Require more than an audit report. Assign counsel and HR responsibility for correcting deficiencies, training managers, and implementing workable procedures. Establish who records performance concerns, who investigates complaints, who approves disciplinary action, and when lawyers must become involved. The objective is a functioning HR system, not a folder of policies that nobody follows.
2. Consider a Negotiated Separation, but Prepare Before Making the Offer
Consider a negotiated separation where the evidence is uncertain, the relationship has deteriorated, or a contested dismissal would cost more than a settlement.
Before approaching the employee, have lawyers assess the grounds, supporting documents, and lawful alternatives. Decide what the company will do if the employee rejects the offer. Do not negotiate assuming that paying several months’ salary will secure an agreement.
Base the company’s negotiating position on documented facts and credible legal options. Do not invent allegations or threaten action the company cannot lawfully take. Use a lawyer-drafted agreement addressing the separation date, additional compensation, existing entitlements, benefits, handover, property return, and settlement of identified claims. Do not assume a broad waiver resolves every statutory issue.
3. Document Problems When They Occur
The employer must establish justifiable grounds for dismissal. Build documentation into ordinary management. Record the instruction, expected standard, deadline, actual result, employee’s explanation, and corrective action. Preserve supporting work product, attendance records, correspondence, and investigation materials.
Avoid vague statements such as “poor attitude” or “not a team player.” Identify the conduct: refused instructions, missed deadlines, repeated errors, or customer complaints.
Keep records that counter the company’s position, including positive appraisals, promotions, bonuses, inconsistent instructions, and inadequate resources. Have counsel address those facts instead of ignoring them.
Give managers standard forms, reporting deadlines, and escalation rules. Review whether they use them. A documentation system should produce an accurate employment history, not begin when someone decides to dismiss an employee.
4. Make Performance Improvement Genuine
A low ranking does not establish sufficient grounds for dismissal.
In Supreme Court Decision 2018Da253680, February 25, 2021, the Court required fair, objective evaluation and deficiencies going beyond performance that is merely worse than colleagues’. It considered the duration and seriousness of the shortfall, prospects for improvement, and opportunities for training or reassignment.
Have lawyers and the responsible manager develop a performance improvement plan tied to the employee’s actual duties. Specify measurable expectations, necessary support, review dates, and how you will assess results.
Give the employee a meaningful opportunity to improve. Record assistance, feedback, explanations, and progress. Consider whether unclear instructions, unrealistic targets, or inadequate resources caused the problem.
5. Investigate Misconduct Before Selecting the Penalty
Identify the allegation, applicable rule, and evidence. Obtain the employee’s response before reaching a conclusion.
A proven violation does not automatically justify dismissal. The assessment includes the employee’s fault, the seriousness of the harm, prior conduct, and surrounding circumstances. The sanction must be proportionate. Review comparable cases. Explain any difference in treatment. Consider whether a warning or another lawful measure would adequately address the conduct.
Have counsel review the investigation and proposed sanction separately. The investigation should establish what happened; the sanction assessment should explain why those findings warrant the proposed response. Do not announce dismissal and then ask HR to investigate the reasons.
6. Establish Lawful Rules and Follow Them
Workplaces regularly employing ten or more employees must prepare and report rules of employment to the MOEL. Their preparation and amendment require employee participation; changes disadvantageous to employees generally require the prescribed collective consent. An audit should verify both the rules and how they were adopted.
Check the employment agreement, rules, and collective agreement before beginning disciplinary action. Identify requirements concerning notice, response opportunities, committee composition, approvals, union involvement, and internal review. Failure to follow a binding disciplinary procedure can invalidate an otherwise supportable dismissal.
Have proactive lawyers design procedures that are lawful and workable. Avoid copying a handbook that imposes steps the company cannot consistently perform. Once procedures apply, assign responsibility for each requirement and retain proof of compliance.
7. Check Protected Periods and Retaliation Risks
Conduct a separate protected-rights review before approving termination. Dismissal is generally prohibited during qualifying occupational-injury or disease leave and for 30 days afterward, and during statutory maternity leave and the following 30 days. Childcare leave carries separate protections.
Check for recent complaints concerning harassment, discrimination, wages, safety or union rights. For workplace-harassment reports, Article 76-3 requires prompt, objective investigation and prohibits dismissal or unfavorable treatment of protected reporters and victims. Build these checks into the approval process. Do not leave them to a manager’s recollection during the termination meeting.
8. Use Redundancy Only for Genuine Business Reasons
Do not describe an individual performance problem as a restructuring. Article 24 of the LSA requires urgent managerial necessity, efforts to avoid dismissal, reasonable and fair selection criteria, and good-faith consultation with the appropriate employee representative to lay off a worker in Korea. The statute requires notice to that representative at least 50 days before the intended dismissal.
Prepare the business case before selecting employees. Document the financial or operational circumstances, alternatives considered, selection criteria, and consultation. Evaluate redeployment, hiring restrictions, voluntary departures and other feasible measures. Have counsel identify the proper employee representative and check any additional reporting obligations. Coordinate the timetable with headquarters before announcing a global restructuring locally.
Also assess subsequent hiring plans. Article 25 of the LSA may require preferential rehiring when the employer recruits for the same or similar job within three years.
9. Have Lawyers Review the Dismissal Notice Before Delivery
For dismissals covered by Article 27, written notice must identify the grounds and effective date. A vague reference to “management’s decision” or a list of breached policy provisions is insufficient.
State the material facts clearly. Keep the notice consistent with the investigation, disciplinary decision, and prior communications. Confirm authority to issue it and preserve evidence of delivery.
Separately, Article 26 of the LSA generally requires 30 days’ advance notice or at least 30 days’ ordinary wages. Exceptions are limited. Less than three months’ continuous employment is an exception to advance notice—not automatic permission to dismiss without justifiable grounds where those protections apply.
Have counsel and payroll verify the effective date and calculation. Do not assume ordinary wages equal base salary.
10. Calculate the Full Exposure, Including Reinstatement
Budget before deciding. Final wages and other amounts due generally must be paid within 14 days, subject to an agreed extension where special circumstances exist. Keep undisputed entitlements separate from negotiations over additional compensation.
Statutory retirement benefits are separate obligations. Coverage generally requires one year’s continuous service and an average of at least 15 contractual working hours per week over four weeks. Under the retirement-allowance system, the minimum is generally 30 days’ average wages per year of service. Check the applicable pension arrangement rather than assuming every employee receives an additional identical cash payment.
IPG Legal: Korean Employment Law and HR Systems
IPG Legal’s labor and employment practice combines preventive HR advice with representation in employment disputes. Its published experience includes building employment and compliance systems for a NASDAQ-listed company’s Korean subsidiary, restructuring an international retailer’s HR system, managing workforce reductions, implementing performance improvement programs and conducting disciplinary and grievance committee proceedings. The firm also represents employers and employees before Labor Relations Commissions and Korean courts.
A defensible termination begins before the dismissal letter. Where the Korean Labor Standards Act’s dismissal protections apply, an employer needs justifiable grounds and must follow the required procedures. Paying notice money does not cure an unlawful dismissal.
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