(1) The renewal expectation right in the Short-term Employee Act was the legal principle established to prevent the employer’s abuse of using fixed-term employment and to protect employees in the repeatedly renewed employment contract. Even though it has been ten years since the Fixed-term Employee Act was implemented, it is a still controversy between the labor and management over whether the principle of renewal expectation rights could be used or not.
Since there were some court rulings about renewal expectation rights in the regional and high courts, but there has been no Supreme Court ruling until recently. Even in the regional and high courts, such renewal expectation rights were not recognized continuously. The Supreme Court ruled on the case of “Working-Together Foundation” and recognized the renewal expectation right at the newly established short-term employment contract. This Supreme Court ruling could suggest a court ruling guide over whether the legal principle of renewal expectation right could be recognized or not.
(2) After the Fixed-term Employee Act was implemented, whether the legal principle of renewal expectation rights could be recognized depends on whether in Article 4 of the Fixed-term Employee Act, the purpose of its enactment for restricting fixed-term employment could be interpreted narrowly as one to ‘prevent the abuse of using fixed-term employment contracts or widely as one to extend flexibility in employment. Also, there has been no such a Supreme Court ruling about the recognized case of renewal expectation rights so far.
Now, we have some rulings in the regional and high courts as well as the Supreme Court about renewal expectation rights. In terms of reviewing the purpose of the Fixed-term Employee Act about the restriction of fixed-term employments, which was to prevent the abuse of repeating fixed-term employments and to guarantee the employee’s status, the Short-term Employee Act could not be used to prevent a justifiable expectation of automatic renewal, but also to extinguish expectation renewal rights already established and granted. After all, as the legal principle of renewal expectation rights has several limitations, Article 4 of the Fixed-term Employee Act should be supplemented with more legislative revisions.