Korean Job Discussion Forums

gray · Joined: 12 Jan 2003

hey, i just have a quick question for any of you that have worked at an ecc, or even just think you have the answer to my question. overtime at my school isn't paid out until after 144 hours......the problem with this (besides that 144 is way too high) is that on holiday days (national or just school holidays) we don't charge for the hours we would've taught. so we can teach 144 hours in say, less than four weeks, but never see overtime because of the holiday days. so we teach 8 or 9 classes a day, but it doesn't end up being overtime b/c we'll have had a couple of days off. so what exactly are paid holidays???? they seem to think that because they don't deduct money off our salary when there is a holiday, that this constitutes a paid vacation. am i wrong, or is something weird going on here? help me out. peace.

Jasmine · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Hongkers!

Don't know about the whole vacation thing, but most contracts pay overtime after 120 hours each month. 144 is way too damn much!!! My boyfriend and I got ours down to 100 hours/month before coming cause we thought 120 was too much!
Good luck! Very Happy

Zyzyfer · Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2003 4:06 am Post subject:

Having come from an ECC contract, you're quite right in your assumption that "paid holiday" simply means you get your normal monthly salary, despite being off for a few days.

Keep in mind that an ECC director can potentially pay you by the hour instead of by monthly salary if you even take 2 days off as "vacation". My roommate/fellow teacher took 3 days off and found his paycheck, in his words, 400,000 won less than the normal monthly stipend.

Is it biased against you? Sure. Things like this are why I didn't resign with my previous employer.

144 isn't that high, since it translates into 96 physical hours per week. It's a lot, but the 40-minute class system(you're on that, I hope, or else I'm babbling to myself) shrinks it down a lot.

At least you're not teaching at 3 different places, or teaching summer intensive courses, but having your normal class hours cut back, thereby cancelling out any potential overtime. -_-

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

they don't know what a vacation is~that's why it's hard to find a place that offers a good one,

many koreans (and others too i guess) think getting on a plane going anywhere for 4 days and spending lots of money is a vacation~

what gets me is schools where the students recieve a nice long vacation, but they give the ol' ESL teacher extra whatever for weeks to make them more money while the teacher gets just the reg. salary~they just prefer to make money rather than relax and enjoy life, not just them but lots of people everywhere, too concerned about putting $ in the bank>>>

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

Zyzyfer · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2003 8:41 pm Post subject:

I don't think you understand the situation he's quoting. To be specific, I taught summer intensive courses at my hakwon last year. At the same time, many of my afternoon classes were passed to other teachers, so I wouldn't make a ridiculous amount of money. If you tried to keep your classes, you were pretty much forced to lose some anyways. There was no way to make overtime pay technically, even though you feel like you should be making some overtime in this scenario.

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

i haven't accepted anything like, just saying i've gotten and seen offers like it~ Wink

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

Zyzyfer · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2003 5:43 am Post subject:

Nobody's saying it isn't legitimate. We're(I'm?) just saying it sucks.

gray · Joined: 12 Jan 2003

thanks to those of you that responded......even if there is nothing i can do about, it's good to have people to commiserate with. i guess i should have had something put into my contract about the number of hours i would work per week, and then i wouldn't be working 45 one week, and still not seeing any overtime. oh well, all the teachers at my school are in the same boat so maybe we'll just go have a good cry into our beers...peace.