According to the Customs Act, the employment of the worker has to be ransferred and M&A alone is not a justifiable reason enough to undertake a restructuring.However, if restructuring is unavoidable, and meets the necessary requirements for under-taking a justified restructuring procedure, the two parties can merge after the restructuring or do the restructuring procedure after the merger.

Transfer of employment depends on various factors such as how the M&A took place, how many businesses were acquired, or how many stocks were purchased etc.

According to Art. 43 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, it is prohibited to replace or recruit new workers during industrial action as it stipulates, ‘An employer shall not hire or substitute any person not related to the relevant business during a period of industrial action in order to continue work which has been interrupted by the industrial action’.

• This means that it is not possible to change the workplace, establish a branch, employ a person not related with the industrial action, or manufacture products through another business or individual in order to prevent or replace losses caused by the industrial action.
However, there are no restrictions in the following cases:
• Selling or manufacturing personally, which is included in the definition of an employer as stipulated in Art. 2 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act;
• Substituting with a worker from the same company and conducting the same kind of work but not participating in the industrial action;
• Supplementing workers due to a natural reduction of staff and through new recruitment due to an already planned business expansion;
• Collective action with the purpose of achieving management participation without any relation to maintaining or improving working conditions is not regarded as industrial action. In this case, there are no restrictions for recruiting a replacement.

The types of facilities can be divided as for the following:

– Air pollutants;
– Water pollutants;
– Prevention of the discharge and generation of noise and vibration;
– The design or execution of facilities to reduce or control the above.

Depending on the industrial sector, the businesses are divided into air pollution prevention facilities business, water pollution prevention facilities business, and noise / vibration prevention facilities business.
People interested in prevention facilities business have to possess the necessary technological capabilities as stipulated in the Enforcement Decree of the Development of and Support for Environmental Technology Act, and need to register at a local environment agency.

The payment for waste is levied on those types that contain elements hazardous to the atmosphere or water, poisonous elements or are difficult to recycle. The cost to process these kinds of waste is levied on the manufacturer or the importer in order to control the generation of such waste. Furthermore, the waste of resources should be prevented by making the payment a basic principle levied to the business causing the pollution and also, include the “environment fee” to the product price for a rational distribution of the costs.
Excluded from the payment are samples for research objectives imported by the Industrial Technology Research Association or a corporate annex research center as well as the products imported or manufactured for export.

The permissions and approvals needed for environment business do not make a distinction between foreigners and Korean nationals. Therefore, it is possible for a foreign national or foreign company to be involved in an environment-related business.
In order to conduct a business in the environment sector such as environmental pollution prevention facilities, relevant approvals and permissions need to be obtained from the local environment management agency in line with the conditions as stipulated in the environment-related acts.
It is possible to supply material for and design of prevention facilities business to prevention facilities businesses even if not being registered as an environmental pollution prevention facilities business, if public institutions and agencies as well as registered prevention facilities businesses make such an order.

The assessment of impact on the environment does not apply to small-scale administrative plans and development projects, so that they need to undergo a prior inspection. This inspection has the objective to coordinate government policies with the environmental guidelines and for conservation of the environment.
Prior discussion with the Minister of Environment or the head of the local environmental agency is necessary, if an administrative plan or development project will have some kind of impact on the preservation of the national environment or the maintenance of the environmental standards pursuant to Art. 25 of the Framework Act on Environmental Policy. The discussion needs to be conducted before the confirmation or approval of the plan or project.
The regulations for the discussion including the period, business and required documents etc. are stipulated in the Enforcement Decrees [appendix 2] and [appendix 3] of the Framework Act on Environmental Policy.
If the purpose to utilize territory shall be changed pursuant to the Act on the Utilization and Management of the National Territory (for example from using the land as semi-agricultural area to a semi-urban area), then the plan to utilize the territory has to be modified and for that the competent person has to draft the modified plan and discuss the matter prior with the Minister of Environment or the head of the local environment management agency.

– Plans or development projects for which the period of the discussion is the same as the
period for assessment;
– Individual projects that do not involve the cutting of trees, digging up sand or stones or
changing the form and quality of land;
– Projects for emergency relief of disasters pursuant to Art. 36 of the Natural Disasters
Relief Act;
– Plans or development projects, which are considered of high military confidentiality or
are needed urgently for the execution of military strategies;
– Plans or development projects with prior environmental assessment pursuant to any
other Acts.

The major categories of assessment are as follows:

– Natural environment (5): climate, topography and geology, animals and plants, oceanic
environment, navigability and hydrology;
– Living environment (11): use of land, atmosphere, water quality, soil, waste, noise and
vibration, bad odors, radio wave disturbances, sunlight disturbances, leisure and
scenery, hygiene and public health
– Social and economic environment (7): population, housing, industry, public facilities,
education, traffic, cultural goods, etc.

There also exists a focused assessment system, which concentrates on special categories of the company with important environmental impacts considering their special qualifications and specifications.
The assessment document filled out by the business itself is submitted to the competent agency. From there, the document is conveyed to the Ministry of Environment (or local environmental agency) for review. The Ministry or local agency will then review the assessment document and send the result back to the competent agency for approval with comment after making necessary changes or supplementation, if necessary.
For the effectiveness of this assessment system, a proper execution of this system is required, and the business shall therefore comply with the results of and the regulations set in the assessment. Therefore, obligation to conduct further research about impact on the environment as well as appoint a person in charge to manage and comply with the regulations of the assessment etc. have to be fulfilled. Furthermore, a penalty will be levied when violating the amount of concentration of pollutants that are discharged.
In addition, the competent agency in charge of approval has to undertake the necessary measures to guarantee the compliance with the results of the assessment and if necessary also have the authority to order the halt of the construction through on-spot inspection. Local environment agencies can request to the business or the approving agency to undertake necessary measures such as stopping ongoing construction processes if it finds it necessary.

The assessment of impact on the environment is a process, which examines various business plans not only in terms of its economic and technological capabilities, but also regarding environmental elements and compares all these factors in a comprehensive perspective before making the final decision about the most appropriate business plan.
The assessment process is a preventive system for environmental pollution, which has the objective to create an environment-friendly and sustainable development, as well as to build and maintain a fresh environment. The projects subject to this assessment are as follows:

– Projects that are likely to damage the natural environment and ecosystems such as the
creation of country clubs;
– Projects taking place in environmentally-sensitive areas such as natural parks;
– Projects, for which environmental impact is difficult to predict due to the long-term and
complex nature of the effects through the construction of dams and land reclamation
projects;
– Projects creation of housing sites and industrial complexes.

The businesses subject to the assessment pursuant to the present Act on Assessment of Impacts of Works on Environment are 62 project units in 17 areas setting up tourist complexes above a certain size (refer to Appendix 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Assessment of Impacts of Works on Environment, Traffic, Disasters, etc.).
It is possible that the business itself acts as the proxy for filling out the documents for the assessment process by collecting the opinions of the citizens and relevant administrative authorities and requesting cooperation from the institutions in charge of the assessment (Ministry of Environment or local environment management agencies) after collecting the opinion of residents and relevant administrative organs. After the assessment, it is possible to execute the project, and after the project is completed the after-service is taken care of by the local environment management agencies.

If the factory site is larger than 150,000?, then an evaluation concerning environmental impacts has to be conducted. And even if the site is less than 150,000m2, an environmental evaluation consultation is necessary when the region shall be used for other purposes.
A notification needs to be made to the governor of the city or province, depending on the size or type/region/location of the waste material of the factory, before it is established. Furthermore, permission needs to be obtained for various pollutants. That is, if air pollutants are discharged, a permission of establishing air pollutant disposal facilities pursuant to the Clean Air Conservation Act, and a permission of establishing waste water disposal facilities pursuant to the Water Quality Conservation Act has to be obtained for waste water. For noise or vibration, permission has to be obtained pursuant to the Noise and Vibration Control Act.If the factory discharges flying dust directly into the air without a separate outlet, then notification has to be given to the governor of the city or province pursuant to the lean Air Conservation Act, and has to take measures or install facilities in order to reduce the formation of flying dust.If discharge facilities shall be installed, then it is necessary to install prevention facilities in order to discharge pollutants below the permitted level. When the installation of the prevention facilities is completed and the facilities are to be operated, then the operation of the facilities has to be notified at the competent authorities according to the Clean Air Conservation Act, Water Quality Conservation Act, or the Noise and Vibration Control Act. However, no notification is necessary, if the waste discharge is always below the permitted level, or the discharge of the waste can be conducted by other means than the prevention facilities and permission to use such means is obtained by the relevant authorities.