Asia: Public holiday, annual leave and sick leave entitlements

Employees are entitled to be absent with pay on gazetted public holidays. Currently there are 11 gazetted public holidays per year. Employers and employees may mutually agree to substitute another day for any of the gazetted public holidays.

An employee who is required to work on a public holiday must generally be paid an additional day’s salary at the basic rate of pay on top of their gross rate of pay for that day, but can be given a day off or time off in lieu in certain cases. Special rules apply to part-time employees.

Employees are entitled to be absent from work on statutory holidays (currently for 15 days each year), but only employees with at least three months’ service immediately preceding the statutory holiday are entitled to a paid holiday. 

Employers may request that an employee work on a statutory holiday, provided they give 48 hours’ notice to the employee and appoint another day, within 60 days before or after the statutory holiday, as an alternative holiday.

Banks, educational establishments, public offices and government departments observe 17 general holidays (which includes statutory holidays) as prescribed under the General Holidays Ordinance (GHO). While all employees are entitled to statutory holidays, many employers, particularly in white collar industries, also grant employees leave on the three additional general holidays even if they do not fall under the application of the GHO.

Pursuant to the Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, three additional days of statutory holiday (Easter Monday, Good Friday, and the day following Good Friday) will be added progressively from 2026 to 2030, such that there will be 17 statutory holidays per year by 2030:

• Easter Monday (effective since 1 January 2026)
• Good Friday (from 1 January 2028)
• The day following Good Friday (from 1 January 2030)

There is no legal entitlement for employees to be absent with pay on public holidays. Currently there are 16 public holidays per year prescribed under the Public Holiday Law. 

Under the Japan Labour Standards Act, employers are only required to give their employees a minimum of one day off per week (or four days off every four weeks). There is no legal obligation to provide additional days off to employees on public holidays. 

In practice however, most businesses close during public holidays, and most employers do allow employees to be absent with pay on public holidays.

All employees are entitled to be absent with pay on Labour Day which falls on 1 May every year.

In addition, employers with five or more employees are required to provide employees with paid leave on the 11 public holidays set out in the Ordinance Concerning the Holidays of Government and Public Offices.

Employees with at least three months' service are entitled to seven days of paid annual leave during the first 12 months of service and an additional one day of annual leave for every subsequent 12 months of service, up to a maximum of 14 days.

Annual leave entitlements may be forfeited if the employee absents themselves from work without the employer’s consent or without reasonable excuse for more than 20% of the working days on which their annual leave entitlement is based, if the leave is not taken within 12 months of being granted or if the employee is dismissed for misconduct.

Employees covered under Part 4 of the Singapore Employment Act (EA) are entitled to carry forward any unused annual leave to the next 12 months.

Part-time employees are entitled to annual leave on a pro-rata basis, calculated in accordance with the legislation.

Upon termination of employment, except where the termination is due to misconduct, the employer must encash all accrued but untaken leave to the employee.

The Employment Ordinance (EO) regulates the minimum annual leave entitlement.

The minimum number of paid annual leave days ranges from seven to 14 per year depending on the employee’s length of service. 

Seven days are granted to an employee who has completed between one and three years of service, and an additional day is granted for each additional year of service, up to a maximum of 14 days for an employee with nine or more years of service.

Statutory annual leave accrues at the end of the leave year and must be taken within 12 months of that date.

Employers are entitled to determine when annual leave is to be taken during that time by giving 14 days’ notice in writing to the employee. Statutory annual leave cannot be forfeited, and any accrued but untaken annual leave must be paid out on termination of the employment, with limited exceptions.

Full-time employees who have reported for work on 80% or more of the total workdays over the past six months are entitled to 10 days' paid annual leave. This leave is granted in full up front, not accrued. For each year thereafter, the number of days granted per annum gradually increases to a maximum of 20 days.

Up to 20 days of unused annual leave may be carried over to the following leave year but will expire if not used within 24 months.

Part-time employees have full entitlement to statutory annual leave if they are contracted to work:

• 30 hours a week or more;
• five days a week or more; or
• 217 days a year or more.

For part-time employees who do not fall within these categories, their statutory annual leave is prorated in accordance with the Japan Labour Standards Act.

Employees who have obtained at least 80% attendance rate during their first year of service are entitled to a minimum of 15 days' paid annual leave, granted at the beginning of the new year.

An employee who has not yet completed one year of service, or who has an attendance rate of less than 80% during their first year of service, is entitled to one day's paid annual leave upon the completion of a full month of service without any absence.

An employee who has completed three consecutive years of service is entitled to one additional day of paid annual leave for every second consecutive year of service exceeding the first year of service up to a total of 25 days. 

Employees may choose when to take annual leave unless it would cause a serious impediment to the operation of the employer’s business. Employers are required to provide compensation for unused annual leave days, unless the employer gives notices in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Korean Labour Standards Act to urge an employee to take annual leave, and the employee fails to do so.  

Employers must encash unused annual leave upon termination of employment.

Sick leave entitlements are set out in the EA. Under the EA, employees are entitled to the full paid sick leave entitlements only if: 

• they have served the employer for at least six months; 
• they have informed or attempted to inform the employer of their absence within 48 hours; and 
• the sick leave is certified by a medical practitioner.

Employees with six months' service or more are entitled to 14 days of paid outpatient non-hospitalisation leave and 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave. The 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave includes the 14 days outpatient sick leave entitlement. This is pro-rated for employees with three months' service or more but less than six months' service.

The EO does not provide for the accrual of a specific number of sickness days or for a limit on the number of sickness days that may be taken by an employee. 

Instead, the EO regulates the accrual and payment of sickness allowance. All sickness days are unpaid unless the employee is entitled to receive a sickness allowance in respect of that day, in which case it will be a paid sickness day. The sickness allowance payable for each paid sickness day is 80% of the employee’s average daily wages over the previous 12 months.

An employee is only entitled to a sickness allowance if:

• the employee has been employed for at least four weeks (with more than 18 working hours per week) immediately prior to the sickness day;
• the employee is absent due to sickness for at least four consecutive sickness days;
• the employee has sufficient accrued sickness allowance entitlement to cover the sickness days in question; and
• the sickness day is specified in an appropriate medical certificate issued by a registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner or registered dentist as a day on which the employee was, is or will be unfit for work on account of sickness or injury.

Sickness allowance accrues at the rate of:

• two paid sickness days for each completed month of employment during the first year of employment (ie, 24 days per year); and
• four paid sickness days for each month of employment thereafter (ie, 48 days per year).

Paid sickness days accumulate from month to month, up to a maximum of 120 days. Unused sickness allowance is not paid out on termination of employment.

There is no legal requirement under Japan law for employers to provide employees with sick leave for illnesses or injuries which are not work-related.

In practice, most employers implement their own sick leave policies, which generally include paid sick leave for employees.

There is no legal requirement under Korean law for employers to provide employees with sick leave for illnesses or injuries which are not work-related. 

In practice, it is common for employers to provide paid sick leave to employees.