1. The plaintiff's claim is dismissed.

2. The costs of lawsuit shall be borne by the Plaintiff.

1. The Plaintiff’s assertion was able to engage in job-seeking activities until October 16, 2016 pursuant to the relevant statutes. If the Defendant Company, the employer, requests the Minister of Employment and Labor to grant re-employment permission, the period of job-seeking activities may be extended only once by less than two years.

In addition, the defendant company is obligated to apply for re-employment unless it notifies the plaintiff that he/she did not intend to apply for re-employment permission at least 10 months before the expiration of the above employment period.

However, even though the defendant company promised to apply for re-employment permit, it notified the plaintiff that he did not intend to apply for re-employment permit after October 6, 2016 when the employment period expires, and the plaintiff lost the opportunity to work in other places.

Therefore, the Defendant Company is obligated to compensate the Plaintiff for damages equivalent to the expected benefits of 22,346,280 won (i.e., monthly 1,015,740 won x 22 months) that the Plaintiff continued to work in the Defendant Company or was employed in another place after being notified that the Defendant Company did not intend to apply for re-employment permission by the Defendant Company in a timely manner and could have been gained by engaging in additional work between 1 and 10 months.

2. Determination

A. According to Article 18 of the Act on the Employment, etc. of Foreign Workers, a foreign worker may engage in employment activities within three years from entry into the Republic of Korea. According to Article 18-2 of the same Act, where an employer requests the Minister of Employment and Labor to permit the re-employment of a foreign worker before departure after the expiration of three years of employment, the period of employment may be extended to less than two years. According to Article 14-2(1) of the Enforcement Rule of the same Act, an employer intends to obtain the re-employment permit, with respect to a foreign worker whose employment contract period up to one month prior to the expiration of employment period,