South Korea is moving to legally protect workers’ right to disconnect from their jobs outside of working hours, as the government seeks to curb excessive overtime and improve work-life balance in one of the world’s longest-working economies.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced the plan Monday at a public briefing in Seoul, unveiling a nationwide roadmap aimed at reducing actual working hours. Under the proposal, employees would be protected from workplace disadvantages for ignoring work-related calls or messages outside official working hours.
The initiative includes legislation to guarantee workers’ freedom from unnecessary after-hours work directives and to promote more flexible working arrangements. One proposed measure would allow employees to leave work 30 minutes earlier by shifting mandatory break time to the end of the workday.
Labor unions, business groups, and the government agreed to push for the enactment of a new law — tentatively titled the Act on Supporting the Reduction of Actual Working Hours — by the first half of next year. The legislation would establish the legal basis for the right to disconnect, flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance, and financial incentives for companies that voluntarily reduce working hours.
Among the proposed flexible work policies is a “10 a.m. start option” for employees with young children, allowing parents to begin their workday later.
The government also plans to introduce mandatory recording and management of working hours, a move aimed at preventing the misuse of so-called “inclusive wage systems,” under which employees receive a fixed salary regardless of the actual hours worked. Critics argue that such systems have enabled unpaid overtime and obscured real labor conditions.
Additional revisions to labor laws are also under consideration. Employees working four-hour shifts would be allowed to choose their rest breaks freely, effectively enabling them to leave work 30 minutes earlier. Annual paid leave would become more flexible, allowing workers to take half-day (four-hour) increments. The government also plans to explicitly prohibit penalizing employees in performance evaluations for using legally guaranteed leave.
A separate set of measures focused on protecting the health of night-shift workers is scheduled to be announced in the second half of next year.
South Korea’s labor, business, and government representatives have set a long-term goal of reducing the country’s average annual working hours from 1,859 hours in 2023 to around 1,700 hours by 2030, aligning with the average among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The proposed reforms highlight mounting pressure on South Korea to address chronic overwork — a long-standing issue linked to low birth rates, employee burnout, and productivity concerns.
