[Plaintiffs, Appellees and Incidental Appellants] Plaintiff 1 and 2 others (Attorneys Jeong Deok-jin and 1 other, Jungdo Law Firm, representing)
[Defendant, Appellant and Incidental Appellee] Jungbu Express Co., Ltd. (Attorneys Kim Yong-sang and 2 others, representing)
[Judgment Below] Daejeon High Court Judgment 2014Na3120 decided November 5, 2015
[Order]
The judgment below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Daejeon High Court.
[Reasoning]
The grounds of appeal are examined.
1. Determination on the Defendant's ground of appeal regarding the scope of ordinary wages
For the reasons stated in its judgment, the court below determined that the length-of-service allowance, meal allowance, and bonus paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiffs were all regular, uniform, and fixed wages and thus all constituted ordinary wages.
Examining the reasoning of the judgment below in light of the relevant legal principles, there is no error in the above determination, such as misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the scope of ordinary wages or exceeding the bounds of the principle of free evaluation of evidence in violation of the rules of logic and experience, as alleged in the grounds of appeal.
2. Determination on the Plaintiffs' ground of incidental appeal regarding recalculation of the basic hourly wage
The court below rejected the Plaintiffs' argument that the basic hourly wage should be recalculated by dividing the daily wage amount paid for one week by the sum of the standard weekly working hours and the overtime working hours, night working hours, and deemed weekly holiday working hours (without considering the premium rates), and that statutory allowances such as overtime allowance should be calculated based on the recalculated basic hourly wage, on the ground that it is difficult to view the basic hourly wage itself as set forth in the collective bargaining agreement and wage agreement as violating the Minimum Wage Act (최저임금법) or the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법).
Examining this in light of the relevant legal principles, there is no error in the above determination of the court below, such as misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the hourly ordinary wage, as alleged in the grounds of appeal.
3. Determination on the Plaintiffs' ground of incidental appeal and the Defendant's ground of appeal regarding the total working hours for calculating the hourly ordinary wage
A. When converting a fixed allowance paid in the form of a monthly or daily wage, as wages for agreed working hours exceeding the standard working hours prescribed by the Labor Standards Act, into an hourly ordinary wage, in calculating the number of agreed working hours to be included in the total working hours that serve as the basis for calculating the hourly ordinary wage, unless otherwise specifically provided, the actual number of hours that the worker agreed to provide labor should be aggregated as they are, rather than aggregating the number of overtime working hours and night working hours calculated by applying the premium rate for computing premium allowances. Furthermore, where a collective bargaining agreement sets a premium rate for the weekly holiday allowance, this merely means that a certain rate is to be added to the basic weekly holiday allowance when paying the weekly holiday allowance, and thus the same legal principle applies equally in this case. Therefore, in calculating the number of hours deemed to have been worked on the weekly holiday, which must be included in the total working hours, the premium rate set for the weekly holiday allowance should not be taken into account (see Supreme Court en banc Decision 2015Da73067 decided January 22, 2020).
B. According to the reasoning of the judgment below, the following facts can be ascertained.
1) The 2009 collective bargaining agreement and the 2009 and 2010 wage agreements (hereinafter referred to as "the wage agreements in this case") concluded between the Defendant and the △△△△ Chapter under the ○○ Branch of the National Federation of Motor Transport Workers' Unions, to which the Plaintiffs belong, provide as follows regarding working hours and wages.
A) The daily working hours of union members shall be 8 hours, but overtime work of up to 30 hours per week may be performed, and the overtime working hours include up to 3 hours of night working hours per week.
B) The daily working hours serving as the basis for calculating wages are 8 hours of basic working hours plus 5 hours of overtime working hours (of which 30 minutes are night working hours).
C) The "Wage Structure and Calculation Standards," which forms part of the wage agreements in this case, sets forth the premium rate for the weekly holiday allowance as follows.
- Weekly holiday allowance: 12 hours' worth (8 hours + 4 hours) per week
- Weekly holiday allowance: 8 hours × 150/100 = 12 hours
2) The Defendant regarded the basic hourly wage calculated pursuant to the wage agreements in this case as the hourly ordinary wage, determined the "daily wage amount" including the basic wage, overtime allowance, night work allowance, and weekly holiday allowance calculated on the basis of the basic hourly wage, and then paid, as the monthly basic wage, an amount obtained by multiplying the daily wage amount by the number of days the Plaintiffs worked.
3) On each working day, the Plaintiffs worked for the agreed working hours exceeding the standard working hours prescribed by the Labor Standards Act, and in consideration for the agreed working hours, they received, in addition to the monthly basic wage, various fixed allowances in the form of monthly or daily wages.
C. Examining the reasoning of the judgment below in accordance with the legal principles set forth above, in calculating the total working hours for the purpose of calculating the hourly ordinary wage for each of the above fixed allowances, the overtime working hours and night working hours calculated without applying the premium rate, as well as the deemed weekly holiday working hours, should be included.
Contrary to this, the judgment below erred by including, in the total working hours for calculating the hourly ordinary wage of the fixed allowances paid in the form of daily and monthly wages, the overtime working hours and night working hours calculated by applying each premium rate, and this error, being a misunderstanding of the legal principles concerning the calculation of the hourly ordinary wage, affected the judgment. The Plaintiffs' ground of incidental appeal pointing this out is well-founded.
Meanwhile, the court below's determination, in calculating the total working hours for the purpose of calculating the hourly ordinary wage of the fixed allowance paid in the form of a monthly wage, to include the monthly average deemed weekly holiday working hours without applying the premium rate for the weekly holiday allowance, contains a partial error in its reasoning, but is ultimately justified in its conclusion, and there is no error therein in misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the calculation of the hourly ordinary wage.
4. Determination on the Defendant's ground of appeal regarding the agreement on the comprehensive wage system
For the reasons stated in its judgment, the court below determined that the mere fact that there was a prior agreement regarding working hours exceeding the prescribed working hours, etc., in the wage agreements in this case, is insufficient to find that there was an agreement on the comprehensive wage system.
Examining the reasoning of the judgment below in light of the relevant legal principles, there is no error in the above determination of the court below, such as misunderstanding the legal principles concerning the formation of an agreement on the comprehensive wage system or exceeding the bounds of the principle of free evaluation of evidence in violation of the rules of logic and experience, as alleged in the grounds of appeal.
5. Scope of reversal
The portion of the judgment below in which the Plaintiffs lost contains the grounds for reversal set forth above. The Defendant, while appealing the entirety of the portion of the judgment below in which the Defendant lost, disputes that the Plaintiffs' claim seeking payment of additional statutory allowances, etc., calculated by including the bonus in the ordinary wage, violates the principle of good faith. Since this defense of the Defendant based on the principle of good faith needs to be examined and determined together with the portion of the Plaintiffs' claim to be reversed for the reasons set forth above, the entirety of the portion of the judgment below in which the Defendant lost is reversed together.
6. Conclusion
Accordingly, without examining the remaining grounds of appeal, the judgment below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the court below for further hearing and determination. This judgment is rendered as set forth in the Order, with the unanimous consent of the Justices involved.
Justice No Tae-ak (Presiding Justice), Kim Jae-hyung, Min Yu-suk (Justice in Charge), Lee Dong-won