취업규칙과 근로계약의 효력상 우열관계 — 대법원 2019. 11. 14 선고 2018다200709 판결을 중심으로 —

The Korean Supreme Court ruled that if the labor conditions stipulated by the labor contract is more favorable than the labor conditions stipulated by the Rules of employment, the labor contract should be applied. The ruling was based on the interpretation by argument from the contrary of Article 97 of the Labor Standards Law in Korea, which stipulated “If a labor contract includes employment conditions which are below the standards stipulated in the rules of employment, such nonconformity shall be null and void. In this case, the invalidated provisions shall be governed by the standards provided for in the rules of employment.”, and the the legal character of the Rules of employment. However, such a interpretation is incorrect. The reason is as follows. First, the interpretation by argument from the contrary of the law must be validated through systematic interpretation and logical analysis and so on. Second, Article 94 of the Korean Labor Standards Act stipulates that collective agreement must be obtained in order to disadvantageously change the Rules of employmen. Third, collective agreement under Article 94 of the Labor Standards Act is consistent with the principle of “Determination of Working Conditions” which stipulated by the Article 4 of the Labor Standards Act. Therefore, the interpretation by argument from the contrary of Article 97 of the Labor Standards Law must not be applied directly to the revised rules of employment with the collective agreement of the group. The Rules of employment that have been amended with the collective agreement of worker representatives should be viewed as having the effect of changing the labor contracts of individual workers.