The new rule comes after the country reported a total of 1,228 cases of heat-related illnesses between May 15 and July 8, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

There were also eight deaths suspected to be related to the heat, The Korea Times reported, citing the agency.

The rest time regulation has been pushed in South Korea since last year, but previous attempts were blocked amid concerns about the rule's burden on small businesses, according to The Korea Herald.

Ensuring a 20-minute break every two hours is a basic measure of survival, but some employers fail to provide them even in high temperatures, according to the Jeju branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

"These amount to neglect and dereliction of duty by the state," it said as quoted by The Korea Times.

Protection against heatwave

South Korean law holds employers with five or more regular employees criminally liable for heat-related fatalities of workers.

The government in June also operated a three-week autonomous improvement period for 60,000 high-risk workplaces, providing heat illness prevention guidelines and self-checklists based on basic heatwave safety rules.

South Korea's national temperature in early July has exceeded national levels, according to the country's meteorological agency.

Its national average temperature for the first 10 days hit 28.2 degrees Celsius, the highest ever recorded for that period since observations began in 1973, The Korea Bizwire reported.

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