"The holiday break will be taken as annual leave." Most people hear it at least once a year. Art. 62 of the Labor Standards Act is cited for it: "the employer may, by written agreement with the workers' representative, have workers rest on specific working days in place of annual leave days under art. 60." Three requirements in one sentence - and the third is where it catches. Public holidays have been paid holidays at every workplace with five or more workers since 1 January 2022 (art. 55(2)), so they are not "working days", and on a day that is not a working day there is no art. 62 substitution. The annual-leave article left this question open; today it becomes a checker that decides it from the text alone.
1. Three requirements, one path that works. The representative's written agreement, art. 60 leave, a specific working day - 1 of 60 combinations.
2. Public holidays, the weekly rest day and non-working days are not working days. Public holidays became paid from 1 January 2020 (300+), 1 January 2021 (30-299) and 1 January 2022 (5-29); from 11 May 2026 Labour Day is on the list too.
3. Where it fails, the leave stays. Fifteen days accrued, five public holidays "substituted" - 10 left at a 5-29 worker firm in 2021, 15 from 2022.
It reads arts. 62, 55(1)-(2), 60 and 24(3) of Korea's Labor Standards Act, art. 30(2) of its Enforcement Decree and Decree Table 1 as written. Art. 62: "the employer may, by written agreement with the workers' representative, have workers rest on specific working days in place of annual leave days under art. 60" - three requirements. Public holidays and substitute holidays are paid holidays at workplaces with 5 or more workers under art. 55(2) and Decree art. 30(2) (from 2020 for 300+, 2021 for 30-299, 1 Jan 2022 for 5-29), so they are not working days; nor are the weekly rest day (art. 55(1)), non-working days outside the contract schedule, or days already made holidays. The "workers' representative" is the union organised by a majority of workers or, failing that, a person representing the majority (art. 24(3)). Arts. 55(2), 60 and 62 do not apply to workplaces with 4 or fewer (Table 1). Accrued leave is capped at 25 days (art. 60(4)) and reduced only where the substitution stands. It decides only whether a substitution stands - what the written agreement says, whether the representative was properly chosen and whether specific days are named are things to check with the document in hand. An estimate - confirm with your regional labour office or the call centre (1350).
Three requirements, one path that works
Read art. 62 in pieces: "by written agreement with the workers' representative", "in place of annual leave days under art. 60", "on specific working days". With whom and how, replacing what, on which day. The representative is defined in art. 24(3): "the trade union organised by a majority of the workers, or where there is none, a person representing the majority of the workers". A manager's notice is not that; neither is each worker's signature.
The checker runs workplace size (5+ / 4 or fewer) × five kinds of day × three kinds of agreement × two kinds of leave = 60 combinations. Exactly one is a valid substitution: five or more workers, an ordinary working day, the representative's written agreement, art. 60 leave. The other 59 come out as "not a substitution", "outside the statute" or "needs checking". Where it is not a substitution, that day's leave has not been used - you rested, but not by an art. 62 day off.
Since 1 January 2022 a public holiday is nowhere a "working day"
Art. 55(2): "the employer shall guarantee the workers the holidays prescribed by Presidential Decree as paid holidays." Decree art. 30(2) names them: "the public holidays under each item of art. 2 of the Regulation on Public Holidays of Government Offices (excluding item 1) and substitute holidays under art. 3" - everything but Sundays: Seollal, Chuseok, Children's Day, national days, substitute holidays. The 2018 amendment's addenda staggered the start: 1 January 2020 for 300 or more workers, 1 January 2021 for 30 to 299, 1 January 2022 for 5 to 29.
From then on a public holiday is not a working day. "Take your leave on the holiday" was once routine - before 1 January 2022, at a 5-29 worker firm, a public holiday was a working day and an art. 62 substitution could stand. Now it is a paid holiday, and the third requirement is missing. The Regulation was amended on 30 April 2026 to add Labour Day (1 May) to art. 2 (in force 11 May 2026), and the clause that used to exclude Constitution Day from the national days is no longer in the text.
The proviso to art. 55(2) does allow one thing on a public holiday: "where agreed in writing with the workers' representative, it may be substituted with a specific working day." That moves the holiday - work on the holiday, rest on another working day. It does not use annual leave. The shared word "substitute" is what makes the two easy to mix up.
Only an ordinary weekday is a "working day"
Of the checker's five kinds of day, only the ordinary weekday is a working day. The weekly rest day is a paid holiday under art. 55(1); Saturday on a five-day week is a non-working day outside the schedule; a founding day is a day the rules of employment already make a holiday. All three are days off to begin with, so there is nothing to "rest in place of leave".
On a six-day week Saturday is a contract working day and counts as a weekday - the checker's "non-working day" means only days outside the schedule. A company closing on a weekday bridge day and booking it as annual leave is an art. 62 substitution if the representative's written agreement exists - and that agreement must name the "specific" working day, the date.
The same five days: 10 left in 2021, 15 from 2022
Take a worker with 15 days of leave and a written agreement with the representative that "5 public holidays are taken as annual leave". At a 5-29 worker firm in 2021 the public holidays were working days, the substitution stood, and 10 days remained. From 2022 the same document exists but those five days are not working days, the substitution fails, and 15 days remain. The rest was rest on paid holidays.
The checker's last two fields do that sum. Accrued leave is capped at art. 60(4)'s 25 days, and the substituted days are deducted only where the substitution stands. Days beyond those accrued are not leave and are not deducted. The accrued number itself comes from the annual-leave calculator.
Four or fewer are outside the statute; a breach is art. 110
Art. 11(2) leaves the provisions applying to four or fewer workers to the Decree, and Decree Table 1 is that list. Its chapter-4 row on working hours and rest has arts. 54, 55(1) and 63 only - no art. 55(2) (public holidays), no art. 60 (annual leave), no art. 62 (substitution). With no statutory leave to replace, the checker answers "outside the statute". If the rules of employment grant leave, the rules are the answer.
Art. 62 carries no penalty of its own. Where a failed substitution leaves leave unused and the employer withholds it, that is a breach of art. 60, and art. 110 provides up to two years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million won for "a person who violates art. 55 ... art. 60(1), (2), (4) and (5)". Not paying for a public holiday falls under the same article.
Questions that remain
The company wants me to sign a "leave substitution consent form".
Individual consent is not the representative's written agreement (art. 24(3)). Signing does not make it an art. 62 substitution - though you can always request leave for that day yourself (art. 60(5)), and that is your own use, not a substitution.
I do not know who the workers' representative is.
Without a majority union it is "a person representing the majority of the workers", and the text does not say how that person is chosen. Whether the name on the agreement really carries the majority's mandate is outside the text - the labour office reads it.
We have an agreement signed back in 2021.
What matters is not the date of the agreement but the date of the day off. Public holidays after 2022 are not working days, so the agreement does not reach them. Any weekdays it names are a separate matter.
We are a 300-plus company and took 2019 holidays as leave.
Before 1 January 2020 a public holiday was a working day there - a substitution then stood if the requirements were met. This checker reads the current text.
Sources
Korean Law Information Center, Labor Standards Act - statute text (in force 20 Aug 2026) - art. 62 (substitution of paid leave), art. 55(1)-(2) and the staggered commencement of para. 2 (addenda to the 20 Mar 2018 amendment), art. 60 (annual leave; (4) cap of 25 days; (5) timing on request), art. 24(3) (workers' representative), art. 11(2) (four or fewer), art. 110 (penalty).
Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act - decree text (in force 23 Oct 2025) - art. 30(2) (the decree holidays: public and substitute holidays, Sundays excluded), art. 7 and Table 1 (provisions applying to four or fewer workers - chapter 4: arts. 54, 55(1), 63).
Regulation on Public Holidays of Government Offices - regulation text (in force 11 May 2026) - art. 2 (the list; Labour Day added by the 30 Apr 2026 amendment) and art. 3 (substitute holidays).
Checker verification. 540 combinations (two sizes × five kinds of day × three kinds of agreement × two kinds of leave × three accrued counts × three substitution counts) were checked against the statutory logic in both languages - the verdict, the provision, accrued, used and remaining days, and the presence of each note - confirming that the substitution stands in 3 × 3 = 9 cases, i.e. 1 of 60 combinations.
Left for another day
How the representative is chosen. Not in the text.
What the agreement says. Whether "specific working days" are named as dates is a matter of the document.
Leave already booked as substituted in past years. How that unwinds is outside this article - the labour office.
Based on the 2026 provisions. The three requirements, three commencement dates and the penalty are the statute's; "1 of 60" and the remaining-leave example are our arrangement. The checker is an estimate and does not read the document or the representative's standing - confirm with your regional labour office or the Ministry of Employment and Labor call centre (1350).
