Structurally Eliminating Labor Risk by Restructuring Employment Contracts to Reflect Job-Specific Work Arrangements

The client is a workplace that employs and operates numerous security guards and cleaning workers. Despite the fact that the working hours and wage systems differ depending on the nature of the duties, it had previously been using a standardized employment-contract form. As a result, the legal status and wage-calculation methods were not clearly distinguished between security guards—who fall under surveillance and intermittent (monitoring/standby) work—and cleaning workers in an ordinary form of work, and there was an inherent possibility of disputes over working hours, overtime allowances, and holiday work going forward. The client requested advice from Law Firm Insight in order to address legal risks from the employment-contract stage itself.

The core of this matter was to design, on the premise of differing forms of work for each duty, a reasonable and defensible employment-contract structure within the scope permitted by the Labor Standards Act. Law Firm Insight first reviewed whether the wage-calculation structure conformed to the legal principles, assuming the case where—based on the actual work circumstances of the security guards—approval for exemption from the application of working-hour, break, and holiday provisions for surveillance and intermittent workers had been obtained from the competent labor office. As a result, the firm clearly reflected that premise in the employment contract, while precisely composing the contract wording so that the legal risks before and after approval would not be intermixed.

Meanwhile, for the cleaning workers, the firm refined the contract so as to maintain the existing wage level while subdividing the working-hour and wage items, thereby preventing future expansion into disputes over ordinary wages or overtime allowances. In addition, for both job categories, the firm included a provision that overtime work in principle requires prior approval, so that the employer's management and control system would be clearly evidenced in the contract in the event of a later dispute. Specific wage items and working hours were organized to be individually entered in each worker's contract, so as to prevent collective or uniform misunderstandings.

Through this advice, the client came to have employment contracts suited to the form of work for each duty, and in particular, with respect to the security guards, by clearly reflecting in the contract structure the legal premise of approval for surveillance and intermittent work, was able to substantially lower the possibility of disputes related to wages and working hours. Furthermore, by expressly stipulating the prior-approval rule for overtime work, the client established a basis on which to objectively prove the employer's management responsibility even against future claims of unauthorized overtime work or wage claims.

This case is a representative example showing that an employment contract is not a mere formality but a means of advance risk management tailored to the characteristics of the industry and duties, and it is significant in that it simultaneously achieved the practical effects of preventing labor disputes and securing stability in personnel management. Through advice that structurally blocks the possibility of disputes from the contract stage, Law Firm Insight performs a continuing role as a legal partner so that the client can focus on personnel and labor management.

The design of a single line in an employment contract can be the beginning of a dispute, or the most reliable line of defense. "Your Legal Team" makes that difference.