Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dominic]

my boss doesnt even take pension after i begged him to he still didnt

[Mr. Pink]

[kangnamdragon]

I agree, you should try to pay as much pension as possible. It is like putting money in the bank and earning 100% interest.

[weatherman]

[kangnamdragon]

I believe according to Korean law, they must give you severence pay and pension. If not, something is wrong.

[Medic]

Thanks for the input and the information.

Regarding severance : There was a landmark case in the Korean courts for illegal migrant workers, and now because of it , they get severance with or without legal work documents .

So there is no way in hell any hogwon owner can withhold your severance. They only way they can do it legally is iff you sign a contract for less than 52 weeks. I was in the original EPIK programe and we all unknowingly had to sign an addendum to our contracts saying it was a 50 week and not a 52 week contract. We unwittingly gave them legal resource to not paye our severance. How is that for a government outfit, and the education department at that.

The landmark legal case for migrant workers is well documented, so if anyone is feeling insecure about approaching some swindling hogwon owner try and get hold of the details and read up on it. You'll then feel a lot more confidant when you have your altercation.

I'm not sure, but iff you stay on for more than a year at an institute I think you are entitled to partial or full payement of your severance for any part of or extra year that you work.

[weatherman]

[canukteacher]

My university used to have the private pension scheme, and did away with it a couple of years ago. Apparently, (not sure if this is right or not) it became illegal (change in laws) to have a private pension plan in place, and pay severance. They moved us over to the National Pension Plan, and we get out severance every year.

Like I say, I don't know all the ins and outs. This is how it was explained to me.

CT

[aussie col]

My boss never took pension OR tax out of my pay. I was going to ask him about it but figured that I was on a good deal . Once I got a letter from the pension place (name?) asking me to pay a few hundred thou Won. Moved apartment a few weeks later so threw the letter away and never paid a cent the whole year.

I'm Australian so would never get it back even if i tried.

[paquebot]

Does anyone have the web address of a government site that explicitly states that a school (hagwon) must pay into the National Pension Scheme?

I've had a few schools tell me that they're confused by this. Most of the time it's no big deal because the rest of the contract is rubbish, but I may have found a good school with a good contract that's only missing a part about pension. Mentioning the Totalization Agreement between Korea and the United States helps ("I have social security deductions in the US and will need to have pension deductions in Korea to avoid legal trouble"), but it would be great if I could just throw out a go.kr website as evidence.

Thanks to anyone who can help out.

[ttompatz]

[murrdah]

I recently had some issues with pension and my boss (who was taking too much out) and I got some really useful info from the pension office that hopefully will help you out. I'm not sure if it's different from province to province but in case it isn't here are the numbers. It's a long list of salaries so I'll cut it short.

1.915 - 2.030 = ~177,300 (you pay ~88,650)
2.030 - 2.135 = ~187,200 (you pay ~93,600)
2.135 - 2.245 = ~197,100 (you pay ~98,550)
2.245 - 2.360 = ~207,000 (you pay ~103,500)
2.360 - 2.475 = ~217,800 (you pay ~108,900)
2.475 - 2.600 = ~228,600 (you pay ~114,300)

It is 9%, but you only pay 4.5%. It's also wise to check in with the pension office to make sure that your boss is declaring your correct salary. If not then he's probably paying less and keeping your share of the bargain.

Also, since it is required by law and is counted as a bill from the government, if your boss doesn't pay he will get his property seized until he can cough up the cash (it happened to my boss twice).

Hope this helps!

[glimmer]

On a related note, does the National Pension Service actually have an English-language hotline (as the Immigration Service does)? When I called the 1355 number listed on the English section of the NPS web site I was unable to get hold of an English speaker.

[madkisso]