The Ministry of Employment and Labor has uncovered illegal labor practices at Gentle Monster, a prominent domestic eyewear brand, and Samjong KPMG, a major accounting firm, where employees were subjected to unpaid labor under the guise of a discretionary working hour system.

The Ministry announced that a planned inspection of the two companies revealed numerous violations, including hundreds of millions of won in unpaid wages.

The inspection was launched following media reports and internal whistleblowing regarding allegations of excessive working hours at both firms.

The investigation found that both companies had been operating the discretionary working hour system in a way that circumvented regulations, failing to properly pay for night and holiday work.

The discretionary working hour system is designed for tasks that require employee autonomy, such as design work, where the hours agreed upon in writing between the employer and the employee representative are considered the actual working hours.

However, even under such a system, night and holiday work allowances must be paid at a premium in accordance with the Labor Standards Act. It was discovered that Gentle Monster failed to pay a total of 430 million won in wages to its employees, including 340 million won in unpaid allowances for 297 workers under the discretionary system.

Additionally, 115 cases of violations exceeding the 12-hour weekly overtime limit were identified.

The company also violated multiple maternity protection regulations, such as requiring pregnant employees to work night shifts without authorization from the Minister of Employment and Labor, and providing less paternity leave than the legal requirement.

Out of 12 total violations, the Ministry issued corrective orders for 10 and imposed a total of 5.8 million won in fines for the remaining two.

Samjong KPMG, which faced controversy over long working hours following the consecutive deaths of young accountants in March, was also found to have committed 13 violations, including failure to comply with night and holiday work regulations while operating the discretionary working hour system.

It was confirmed that the firm failed to pay a total of 630 million won in wages and had 35 cases of violating the legal overtime limit.

The Ministry stated that it issued corrective orders for 11 violations and imposed 14 million won in fines for five other infractions, including the failure to conduct sexual harassment prevention training for employees dispatched overseas.

Reported by Kim Ji-wook | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News