FAIR Memo
Notes on legislative changes and points that HR teams at foreign-invested companies should watch.
- memo ①
Advising Foreign-Invested Companies on HR: What Should Be Different
A union formation notice arrives, and you do not even know how to explain it to headquarters. HR and labor issues at foreign-invested companies cannot be solved by knowing Korean law alone, because there is one more variable: headquarters.
Read more - memo ②
Five AI Questions Foreign Headquarters Ask
“Does that advisor use AI? How?” AI items now appear on vendor assessment forms, and headquarters’ legal teams check how advisors use AI. Three layers of standards must be read together: the regulations of the headquarters’ home country, headquarters’ own internal standards, and Korean law.
Read more - memo ③
Headquarters Guidelines and Korean Labor Law at Foreign-Invested Companies
Headquarters distributes the same Employee Handbook to every entity worldwide and tells the Korean entity simply to translate it and collect signatures. Localization starts not with translation but with classifying the document’s legal nature.
Read more - memo ④
Headquarters’ Restructuring Plans and the Role of Korean HR
“Cut headcount by 20%.” For headquarters it is a business decision already made, but for Korean HR that is where the work begins. The key is to assess the legal risk accurately, prepare reasonable separation terms and negotiate with enough time.
Read more - memo ⑤
Offer Letter vs. Employment Agreement in Korea
A candidate accepts by email an offer letter stating the title, salary, start date and reporting line, and the offer is then withdrawn because of a headquarters hiring freeze. What matters is not the title “Offer” but how definite the employment terms are and whether the candidate accepted them.
Read more - memo ⑥
Labor Law in Korea, the US and Japan: What Is the Same and What Is Different
A US headquarters tends to think of dismissal as a matter of company discretion, and a Japanese headquarters tends to think of working hours as a matter of labor-management agreements. We set the frameworks of the three countries’ labor laws side by side across seven topics and summarize what the Korean entity should explain to headquarters first.
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