Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pyonghwa]

Hi there,
I would like to share with you my terrible experience with severance pay. Actually, my situation is so bad that I am looking for somebody who was in the same shit.
I was supposed to get my severance for 3 years of work for my school but the employer just refused to pay. The local Labor Office tried every option to make her pay but just in vain. Now my case will go to the court and it may take about 2,3 months. She threatened to kick me out of my apt and cancel my visa. Actually, I'm in the middle of my contract but decided to quit. If I am going to stay here to wait for a court date, how can I legally stay here without any problems with immigration? Did anybody have such an experience? Please, help for I am desparate, I have a family with me here, so this makes my situation even worse.
Thanks.
Pyoughwa

[Anda]

You can Email these people below and they will take care of things.
If you have to you can always do a visa run to Japan and come back on a tourist visa. Also if your wonderful boss trys to cancel your work visa you can apply for a one month tourist visa extension in country.
Anyway before you say boo or do anything get in touch with EFL Law below. Best of luck.

http://efl-law.com/about.html


If your boss tries anything on your accommodation then go direct to immigration and tell them of what is happening and mention ESL Law is looking into things. Immigration can stop your boss from employing another foreigner untill things are sorted out. Your boss will loose students quickly if she doesn't have a foreign teacher. Don't threaten your boss or say anything untill you hear from ESL. Law. When talking with immigration just speak normally and state facts. You make a noise or start threatening then you will loose ground full stop.

[The Cube]

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[waterbaby]

First of all, the way I understand it, when you re-sign a contract for a second or third year, your employer is not required to pay your severance... because severance is when you actually finish working for a company.

Secondly, most contracts these days have termination clauses in them and therefore there should be no problem terminating a contract. My contract clearly states that if I wish to quite, I must give 60 days leave. There is no specific reason I must give for quitting.

So, my question for pyonghwa is: Why did you quit? Because your boss isn't paying your severance or did you quit and now you're having problems getting your severance?

[The Cube]

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[pyonghwa]

Thanks a lot guys for your consiseration and helpful information. First, I submitted a 60 day notice about my resignation because of my husband's perspective contract in another country. My employer was of course disappointed because I was considered to be a good teacher and she didn't know how soon she could find a replacement. The whole problem started when my former boss sold our school to another person. In that case my contract with my former boss had expired and I had to renew it with my new boss. Because my contrant had expired, I was supposed to get my severance from my former boss but he refused saying that he had sold the school with all his debts and liabilities to a new boss. It meant that I had to deal with my new boss. When I approached her she refused to pay. Then there was a hearing and the local Labor Board tried to solve the problem but she didn't want to give up, she just wanted to pay only W2,000,000 , not the total for 3 years. Then the local Labor Office advised me to file a case with the court. So, that's all for now. If this can be of any help, that would be great. Thanks again.

[waterbaby]

Yes, I too know people who have been paid their severance money after working for one year and renewed their contract. However, the law says that an employee may request to be paid their severance but not that the employer must pay it - it's at the employer's discretion.

[The Cube]

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[billbile]

"First of all, the way I understand it, when you re-sign a contract for a second or third year, your employer is not required to pay your severance... because severance is when you actually finish working for a company."

Severance pay is due at the end of any contract. Many if not most contracts in Korea are indefinite (that is, they do not end until someone is sacked, quits or retires, which could be many years away) and therefore severance would not be due until they finish. It is only legally possible for a business to contract with a foreigner, in the ESL industry at least, for one year. Severence is due at the completion of one year for that reason - the contract is legally completed, even though a new one might begin the next day.

[pyonghwa]

[quote]And according to the law, as waterbaby quoted, you are not only owed severance for the first three years, but also the fraction of the fourth year you have worked. Whatever the fraction of this year you've worked is, that's the fraction of the bonus you are owed[/quote]

As Waterbaby wrote, I even need to get a fraction of the bonus , I didn't know that and the Labor Office didn't mention anything about it. But I just wonder, if you could mention to them the Article # which says it.

[The Cube]

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[waterbaby]

Sorry! Haven't checked this thread for a few days...

I got the information about the pro-rate severance pay from EFL-Law. The other information I quoted above was, as The Cube said, from Article 34 of the Labor Standards Act. I can't find the Labor law for the pro-rata thingie... but you could ask [email protected] and I'm sure they'd help you out.

[billbile]

The cube:

I'm talking about all contracts in Korea, including ones agreed to by Koreans.

[pyonghwa]

Thanks a lot! I have already contacted the efl-law and they are helping me out. Hope it will work

[macosie]

I know this thread kinda ended 2 years ago. I'm wondering what wae the final outcome.