My company emailed everyone in December saying to use up their leave. Does that remove my unused-leave pay?

Almost certainly not. Encouraging staff to take leave and running the statutory use-promotion procedure are different things. The procedure has two stages with fixed timing — a written notice to each employee of their unused days, keyed to six months before the leave period ends, and, if the employee does not nominate dates within ten days, a written designation by the employer no later than two months before it ends. A single all-staff email late in the year satisfies neither the individual notice requirement nor the schedule, so the duty to pay is not removed.

Is a KakaoTalk message valid, or does it have to be paper?

Neither answer is safe as a rule about the medium. Article 61 requires the promotion to be in writing, so a manager saying "use your leave" in a meeting does not satisfy it. Whether an email or a message in a company system meets the written requirement depends on how it was actually delivered — whether it went to the employee individually, whether it stated their own unused days, and whether they could read and keep it. "KakaoTalk is always invalid, email is always valid" is not the test; whether each employee was properly notified in writing of their own position is.

I am in my first year. Does the six-month notice apply to me?

No, and this is where employers most often invalidate their own procedure. First-year leave has its own shorter timetable: the first written request is keyed to three months before the first year ends, and if you do not nominate dates within ten days, the employer must designate them in writing by one month before the year ends. Days that accrue after the first notice run on a further compressed schedule. An employer applying the general six-month and two-month dates to a first-year employee has not validly promoted that leave, and the pay remains owing.

They designated my leave dates but then made me work those days. What happens?

Then the promotion has not done what it needs to do. Article 60 provides that leave does not simply lapse where the employee was unable to use it through the employer’s fault, so a company that designates dates on paper and then requires attendance, or that refuses leave requests while running the paperwork, is in a different position from one that genuinely made the time available. Keep the evidence contemporaneously — the designation notice, and whatever shows you worked those days.

Employment

When Unused Leave Stops Being Owed to You

Published September 29, 2026Last verified September 29, 2026

General leave, notice 1

6 months before expiry

General leave, notice 2

2 months before expiry

First-year leave

A different timetable

If done validly

No unused-leave pay

Most of Korean annual leave is arithmetic. This part is not: it is a procedure that decides who owes money, and it either happened properly or it did not.

Article 61 lets an employer that has completed the statutory use-promotion steps escape the duty to pay for leave the employee then failed to take. That is a substantial legal consequence attached to a set of dates and a delivery requirement — which is why “we told everyone to use their leave” is not the same sentence.

Encouragement and promotion are not the same thing

Only one of them changes what you are owed

An all-staff email in December. Not individual, not on the statutory schedule. The pay stays owing.

Written notice to you, of your own unused days, on time — then a written designation if you do not nominate dates.

Designated days you were then made to work. Paperwork completed, purpose defeated.

The question is never whether they mentioned it. It is whether each step was done, to you, on time.

Two stages, fixed dates, in writing, per employee.

The general procedure, in two stages

For an employee past their first year, on ordinary annual leave:

Stage	What the Act requires
First	Within 10 days of the point six months before the leave period ends, the employer notifies the employee in writing of the days they have not used, and asks them to fix when they will take them
Employee	10 days from that request to notify the employer of the dates
Second	If the employee does not, the employer designates the dates in writing by two months before the leave period ends

The anchor is six months before expiry for the first notice.

Both stages, both deadlines, and the written requirement. Miss one and the procedure has not been completed — which means the pay obligation was never removed.

The first-year timetable is different, and shorter

The up-to-eleven days accrued during a first year all expire together at the end of that year — one shared deadline — so a promotion schedule built around a six-month runway does not fit them.

First request — keyed to three months before the first year of employment ends, within 10 days of that point, in writing, naming the unused days.

Employee replies within 10 days with the dates they will take.

If not, the employer designates in writing by one month before the first year ends.

Days accruing after that first request run on a further compressed schedule of their own.

The most common way a company loses this

Running the general six-month and two-month schedule across every employee, including first-year staff. For those employees the promotion is not valid, the leave does not lapse in the way the employer assumed, and the unused-leave pay is still owed — usually discovered at the point someone leaves and asks.

“In writing” is a delivery question, not a brand question

Article 61 requires the promotion to be in writing. A team leader saying “everyone use up your leave” does not meet it.

What it does not do is settle the status of any particular medium. Whether an email, or a notice inside a company HR system, satisfies the written requirement turns on how it was actually delivered:

did it go to the employee individually, rather than to a group
did it state that employee’s own unused days
could the employee read it, and keep it

Do not reason from the app name

"KakaoTalk is automatically invalid, email is automatically valid" is not the test, and repeating it produces confident wrong answers in both directions. The question is whether each employee was properly notified in writing of their own position, and that can fail by email and be satisfied by a system notification.

Completing the paperwork is not the same as providing the leave

A company that designates leave dates and then requires the employee to work them has not made the time available. Nor has one that refuses leave requests while running the promotion process on paper.

Article 60 provides that leave does not simply lapse where the employee could not use it through the employer’s fault. So the promotion machinery does not operate in isolation from what actually happened.

The purpose of the procedure is to produce genuine opportunities to rest. Where the record shows the opposite, that is a separate legal question and not one the notices answer by themselves.

If you are on the receiving end

Keep the notice. Date, medium, and whether it named your own unused days — those three decide most of it.

Reply within the 10 days with dates. Replying is better than being designated, and it removes the argument entirely.

Check which timetable you are on. First year or not — an employer using the wrong one has not validly promoted your leave.

If you were made to work a designated day, record it at the time, alongside the designation notice.

A live amendment with deferred commencement

An amendment to the Labor Standards Act dated 9 June 2026 carries annual leave provisions that do not commence until 10 June 2027. Guidance describing the post-commencement position is therefore not the rule in force today, and the two are easy to mix up in a search result that carries no date. Anything you read about this procedure is worth checking against when it was written and when the provision it describes actually takes effect.

Where this sits

How the days arose in the first place — the two gates, the first-year eleven, the 80% attendance figure and how unused-leave pay is computed — is in annual leave in Korea: how it actually accrues.

What happens to leave still on the books when you leave, and when an unused-leave payment does and does not enter the average wage, is in Korean severance pay.

For a promotion process you think was not properly run, the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s counselling line is 1350. Bring the notices, their dates, and how they reached you — that is the whole case.

Frequently asked questions

My company emailed everyone in December saying to use up their leave. Does that remove my unused-leave pay?: Almost certainly not. Encouraging staff to take leave and running the statutory use-promotion procedure are different things. The procedure has two stages with fixed timing — a written notice to each employee of their unused days, keyed to six months before the leave period ends, and, if the employee does not nominate dates within ten days, a written designation by the employer no later than two months before it ends. A single all-staff email late in the year satisfies neither the individual notice requirement nor the schedule, so the duty to pay is not removed.
Is a KakaoTalk message valid, or does it have to be paper?: Neither answer is safe as a rule about the medium. Article 61 requires the promotion to be in writing, so a manager saying "use your leave" in a meeting does not satisfy it. Whether an email or a message in a company system meets the written requirement depends on how it was actually delivered — whether it went to the employee individually, whether it stated their own unused days, and whether they could read and keep it. "KakaoTalk is always invalid, email is always valid" is not the test; whether each employee was properly notified in writing of their own position is.
I am in my first year. Does the six-month notice apply to me?: No, and this is where employers most often invalidate their own procedure. First-year leave has its own shorter timetable: the first written request is keyed to three months before the first year ends, and if you do not nominate dates within ten days, the employer must designate them in writing by one month before the year ends. Days that accrue after the first notice run on a further compressed schedule. An employer applying the general six-month and two-month dates to a first-year employee has not validly promoted that leave, and the pay remains owing.
They designated my leave dates but then made me work those days. What happens?: Then the promotion has not done what it needs to do. Article 60 provides that leave does not simply lapse where the employee was unable to use it through the employer’s fault, so a company that designates dates on paper and then requires attendance, or that refuses leave requests while running the paperwork, is in a different position from one that genuinely made the time available. Keep the evidence contemporaneously — the designation notice, and whatever shows you worked those days.

Figures in this guide we track

Last checked 29 September 2026

Leave use-promotion: first written notice, general annual leave6 months before expiry2026-09-19
First-year monthly leave: how long it can be used12 months from hire2026-09-19

These move. We check them on a schedule and keep the previous values, so you can see what a figure was, not only what it is.

Last verified: September 29, 2026

Official sources

Revision history

September 29, 2026Published

Figures here are re-checked against their official sources at least every six months. Substantive changes — a rate, a cap, a rule — are logged above rather than silently overwritten, and collected site-wide inupdates & revisions.

This article is general information, not financial, legal, or tax advice. Requirements and figures change; confirm the current rules with the official sources above before making decisions.