퇴직연금의 임금성에 대한 비판적 검토

Theories and cases have treated that the severance payment to be paid upon one’s retirmement from his or her employment The historical background of this was to protect one’s right to receive the retirement proceeds, but it must be viewed in different angle since a huge changes have been taking places in realm of the social security system. Retirement pension system was first introduced in order to overcome the limitations and fallacies that severance payment system possesses,. Each of these two systems has its unique characteristics and differences exist with respect to legal relations between the two, which accordingly must be treated differently in legal perspective. Even though employer pays for the benefit of employee in retirement pension system, it may not the treated as “wages” that an employee earns in traditional sense, but may as well be treated a “legal charge (legal allotment)” as in state pension or other social security systems which also require employer to pay for the benefit of employee. It is somewhat incongruent to apply legal principle in that an employee is to be treated as making “wages” at the statge where he or she is entitled to receive the pension. It is more appropriate to approach the pension with a concept of a right to social security entitlement, and not as a “wages,” though it may have some of potential issues on the stages of pension formation in acknowledging it as a “wages.” Employer should interpret the “pension” as if it is, in private sector, a legal requirement for the employer to bear within social security system. Denying the retirement pension as being a “wages” does not make the employee’s protection any less or weaker, and thus it does not necessarily have to be treated as “wages” either. It is’not effective to recognize the nature of wages in retirement pension because, even if the nature of wages in retirement pension is denied, the system could protect the rights enoughly as much as the rights of wage. Legal system has changed to the unification into a retirement pension and the organization of retirement pension fund system. Accordingly, it needs a reconsideration on the legal characters of the retirement pension.