Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Optimus Prime]

Well, is it common for Public Schools to pay teachers three weeks after completion of their first full calendar month?

I started my job July 18th in a Public School afterschool program, they deposited 1 million in my account on the 1st of August, to cover my July 18th to Aug 1 pay.

Now I am told I won't be paid for working the month of August (1-31) until September 17th. Essentially they are holding back my pay for three weeks. Is this common/legal? This will result in my contract's LAST payday being 17th August 2008, 17 days after I'll have left Korea.

I plan on quitting Monday, so if anyone has any advice, it'd be appreciated.

[CentralCali]

March yourself down to the finance office and demand your pay be processed and processed immediately. There is no excuse whatsoever for a public school (or a hagweon, for that matter) to be paying you late, unless you don't already have a bank account set up here. You should, of course, demand politely. Your contract stipulates the terms of your pay and the law stipulates your payday. I'm in Busan so my public school payday is the 24th of every month, unless the 24th is a weekend or holiday, in which case the payday is the last workday prior.

If you don't get resolution from the finance office, speak to the Vice Principal, then the Principal, then the school inspector at the regional Office of Education, and finally the person in charge of foreign teachers at the provincial/metropolitan city Office of Education. If you still have no satisfaction there, go to the Labor Board and/or the Korea Herald. The Principal certainly won't want to be queried about why his teachers aren't getting paid. He won't want those questions to be coming from his supervisory chain and definitely won't want them coming from the press.

Are you sure you understood the finance person correctly? Public school paydays, even for us foreigners, aren't based on the dates of our contract, but rather on the fiscal month. The fiscal month for our pay is a different time-period (still a full month, though) than that of the Korean teachers. As I said above, my pay day is the 24th. That's because the fiscal month runs from August 25 to September 24, September 25 to December 24, etc. Calendar month doesn't enter into the picture. It's fiscal month.

The above only applies if you were, in fact, hired by the school. If you were hired by a company (hagweon), then I don't know what you can do other than be thrifty and wait until you've hit the six month mark to go to Labor regarding withheld pay.

[ttompatz]

[wylies99]

[yingwenlaoshi]

Why wouldn't they pay you now? Go get your money.

[twg]

Anyone got the labor board's contact info handy?

[just because]

As wylies99 pointed out the public school doesn't pay your wage but whoever runs the after-school classes does....

Just because you are working in the public school doesn't mean they are paying you. You are not on their books if you are just working after- school classes.

Your beef is with your liason/boss/whoever, not the school......

However if you are officially the public school teacher at that school during normal hours and the school is your sponsor then that is a different story but it doesn't sound like it.

[ttompatz]

[Optimus Prime]

[CentralCali]

The failure of the school to pay their fee to your employer is not your problem. That's an issue between your employer and the school administration. Your employer still owes you money for work performed.

[jellobean]

If I read correctly, you got paid on August 1 for your first few weeks.... You were paid within 37 days of starting.... Now you must be paid every thirty days... I believe that Korean law requires it....

[Optimus Prime]