オファーレターと労働契約書は違う？
A Korean candidate receives an offer letter specifying the job title, salary, start date, and reporting line, and accepts the offer by email.
Before the employee starts work, however, global headquarters announces a hiring freeze. The Korean entity then withdraws the offer on the ground that no formal employment agreement has yet been signed.
This type of situation occurs relatively frequently in multinational companies operating in Korea.
Global headquarters may commonly assume that:
- “No formal Employment Agreement has been signed, so no employment contract exists.”
- “An offer letter is merely a document used during negotiations.”
- “Even without an express conditions-precedent clause, final approval from headquarters is implicitly required.”
Under Korean law, however, the first question is not simply what the document is called, but how the hiring process actually operated.
The title “Offer Letter” is less important than whether the essential employment terms were sufficiently definite and whether the candidate clearly accepted those terms.
In practice, several legal issues are closely connected, particularly whether a binding employment contract or a legally protected hiring commitment has already been established.
The key point
The more specifically an Offer Letter defines the employment conditions — especially compensation and the commencement date — the greater the possibility that it may be interpreted as creating a binding employment relationship or hiring commitment under Korean law.
For multinational companies hiring employees in Korea, an Offer Letter should therefore not be treated as a simple administrative document. Its wording, approval conditions, and acceptance process should be carefully structured from the outset.
Note
This article is general information and does not replace legal judgment on any specific matter.
※ 本稿は公開された法令・資料に基づく一般的な情報であり、個別事案の法的判断に代わるものではありません。企業名はすべて匿名としています。