Korean Job Discussion Forums

[poet13]

Im not anywhere near completion of a contract or anything, but I was curious about something.
During the holidays, I do camps. My base pay gets inflated by several million won. November and December, I have done camps every single weekend. My pay is about double for the month. During the rest of the year, I don't have extra classes, hence, my base pay is standard.
Question. If the standard calculation for severance is to add the last three months salary and divide by three, do they still do that for those few months a year that are artificially infllated? Example. My base is 2.1 or 6.3 for three months, but for the three months, Nov-Jan, I will gross about 13.4. So rather than the standard 2.1 severance, that would work out to almost 4.5 million won severance.
Is that right?
It doesn't feel right to me.
Does anybody know what the actual practise is?

I signed on in October, which means I would be calculating from July-Aug-Sept...

[kprrok]

From what I remember, it's the average of your last 3 months including OT but not bonuses or anything like that.

So you'd get severance based on your July/Aug/Sept average. That means anything you do in the winter is not included.

KPRROK

[poet13]

Ah, yes, I wasn't trying to calculate for nov-jan, but I also have the summer camps and stuff so there is in excess of base salary. I guess it comes down to what they consider OT and a bonus. I dont earn OT for the camps, but I receive a set amount per hour in excess of my regular salary.

[penguin]

According to the Labor Standards Act, severance is calculated based on your average wages - one month of average wages for each year of work (Art 34). Your 'average wages' are an average of your last three month's total wages. (Article 19(1)).

'Wages' are your "wages, salary and any other payment...as remuneration for work, regardless of the designation by which such payment is called." (Art 18 ) Therefore, any OT still falls within the definition of 'wages'. (Though some 'extraordinary' pay, e.g. a good attendance bonus or a proficiency bonus, would not. Enforcement Decree Art 2(2) and Art 18 )

However, the Act says if your 'average wages' are lower than your 'ordinary wages', then your 'ordinary wages' should be deemd to be your average wages. (Art 19(2))

To find a definition of 'ordinary wages', you have to go to the Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act. Art 6 is pretty convoluted, but it seems to imply that ordinary monthly wages are your yearly wages divided by 12.

My understanding therefore, would be that you should add up everything you earned in the past year and divide it by 12 (this would be your ordinary wages). Your average wages would be the average of everything you earned in the final 3 months. You should get whatever is greater.

Of course, this is assuming your employer plays by the book!

go to the Ministry of Labor site: http://english.molab.go.kr/ and click on Resources -> Rules and Regulations, and you can see the Enforcement Decree and the Labor Standards Act

[xtchr]

I went through this at the end of my contract in August.
My argument was that Severance should have been the total of the final three months (including all camp monies and overtime), divided by three.
My Supervisor said NO, so I rang the Labour Board, and the guy there agreed with me. I handed the phone to my Supervisor, and he proceeded to argue with the Labour Board guy for a full two hours. Anyway, then my Supervisor fobbed me off, made me go and put my case to the head guy at the POE, which I did.
The whole thing is a really long story, and my Supervisor and POE guy were absolutely incensed with rage that I would dare call the Labour Board on them.
In the end they said I was only entitled to severance calculated on my base pay.

[penguin]

xtchr, I know of people who have successfully got their full severance after appealing to the Labor Board. Did you pursue this with the Labor Board, or just decide it wasn't worth the hassle? What is the POE?

[xtchr]

It was Jeollabuk-do POE. I don't work there anymore, and never will again. I decided it wasn't worth pursuing the severance anymore (it wasn't a huge sum of money - the difference between their calculation and mine) but I caused my Supervisor and higher-ups a bit of grief, so I'm glad I brought it up with them and argued over it for quite a bit. And the look of fury on my Supervisor's face when I handed him the phone with the Labour Board guy on the other end, haha, truly priceless.

[Hollywoodaction]

[ilovebdt]

[Young FRANKenstein]