근로기준법상 금전보상제도

Compensatory award system in the Labor Standard Act

According to the compensatory award system, when the Labor Relations Commission issues a remedy order about the dismissal, if the worker does not want the reinstatement, it may order the employer to pay to the worker an amount not less than the amount of wages he/she would have received if he/she had worked during the dismissal period, in lieu of ordering his/her reinstatement. Until now, in the case of issuing a remedy order about the dismissal of workers, if it is judged as the unfair dismissal, the Labor Relations Commission can only orders remedy on reinstatement. Because this remedy system on the unfair dismissal didn't consider objectively whether they can maintain their labor relationship or not, it caused a stiffen result, which forced them to maintain their labor relationship uniformly in accordance with the request for remedy. Moreover, though it is the unfair dismissal, if workers don't want reinstatement, the order by the Labor Relations Commission isn't effective remedy method. So, in January, 26th, 2007, the Labor Standard Act was revised, by which it became possible to adopt compensatory award system providing compensatory award and backpay and finishing their labor relationship instead of reinstatement order. Even in advanced countries such as Germany, England, France, and so on, in the case of the unfair dismissal, if workers or users don't accept reinstatement, or it is very difficult to maintain their labor relationship in social norms, various compensatory award systems are operated for these all cases. However, in the case of Korea, if the user has the right to apply for compensatory award, because it is possible to abuse this system for avoiding reinstatement, it is only given to workers. Likewise, because compensatory award system adopted in the Labor Standard Act in 2007 diversified remedy methods on the unfair dismissal, it was possible to improve the effectiveness of protection of rights and prevent extending broken labor relationship, so that it can be appraised positively. However, it is adopted only after emphasizing its practical necessity without deep discussion. Moreover, because it was set by only one provision (Article. 30, clause. 3) and concrete operation was left the discretion of the Labor Relations Commission, it has many problems. According to this, original goals of compensatory award system for diversifying remedy procedures on the unfair dismissal and gaining its effectiveness are forgotten and people fall into utter confusion. Therefore, in this paper, it was trying to examine the contents of compensatory award system in the Labor Standard Act and then it was also trying to suggest political methods for effective operation of compensatory award system.