Korean Job Discussion Forums

renzobenzo1 · Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Location: Suji, Yongin

Where does it stipulate in the contract that you have to pay for your lunch.
Seems like a grey matter to me.

I just got told that I have to shell out 90,000 to pay for the last 3 months and the forthcoming month of eating sloppy Joes cafetaria food that tastes like bleep most of the time.

I bet you my boss is pocketing the money himself.

Mad

lowpo · Joined: 01 Mar 2007

kat2 · Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Location: Busan, South Korea

All the teachers have to pay. If you eat in the cafeteria, you do too. I take my lunch everyday, so I don't pay.

spirit2110 · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:35 pm Post subject:

Is this a pub school job? If so, I have yet to come across a contract where lunch is mentioned. If there is no mention, say no plain and simple!

Not in the contract, not your problem.

Bibbitybop · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Location: Seoul

nomad-ish · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:45 pm Post subject:

i used to eat in the cafe each and every day and pay about 50,000W a month. now i just bring my own, and save a bit of money. i liked the food, but the cafe with the other teachers was not a foreigner-friendly place at my school

just bring your own lunch, i really enjoy lunch now because all the teachers in my office leave for about 30min...it's really nice to have some peace and quiet Very Happy

spirit2110 · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:48 pm Post subject:

Wow. Incredible. Let's charge 'em for their sucky cafteria lunch? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

This is South Korea, after all.

renzobenzo1 · Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Location: Suji, Yongin

xCustomx · Joined: 06 Jan 2006

spirit2110 · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:57 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't. But, it's being told 6, 7, 8 months after the fact that's the problem. It seems that this is yet another thing that one should clarify with their school from the very beginning.

xCustomx · Joined: 06 Jan 2006

Well if they never told you that beforehand that you would have to pay for the lunch then I don't see why you would be obligated to make back payments. Try to ration with them and explain that nobody ever mentioned it to you, nor is it written in the contract. If there was a charge, then it should have been deducted from your salary, but not 3 months after the fact.

Snowkr · Joined: 03 Jun 2005

It was definitely was an oversight.
They should have been more organized and deducted it from your salary.

I found out my second week that lunch was not free at my school. As soon as I realized this, I stopped going to the cafeteria. Up until that point, I'd only been eating rice and very occassionally a spoonful of soup.
I don't eat most Korean food and everyone knows it.

Fortunately a teacher had the foresight to tell me that I was wasting my money by signing in for lunch and only eating rice. She said it would be better to just not "eat" and let the other teachers bring me rice if I still wanted it. So sweet...
Since then, my principal and co-teachers have taken me out to lunch almost each week.. sometimes more than once. Otherwise I just bring food from home.

Our cafeteria food is so unappealing that even the Korean teachers have started going out for lunch. I do think that foreign teachers should be required to pay as well but it really should be stated clearly in the contract. I think there must be some public schools that really do provide free lunch but I'm sure they're few and far between.

It was very unprofessional of them to just charge you after the fact, OP, but I'm afraid that logic and common sense if often lost in this culture. I feel very blessed to be where I am. My co-teachers have a clue.

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

It does suck to be hit with a large sum, but come on, it's not unreasonable to be charged for lunch. Everybody else does it, all the teachers and students. Stuff like this and bus/subway fare are petty, Mickey Mouse -type things you should let slide. Not only will it make your life easier to not bitch about it, but you'll more than make it up in free dinners, coffee, rides, mandarin oranges, bread, and the other little treats they provide.

ED209 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006

littlelisa · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Location: Seoul

I'm not a PS teacher, but my lunches at the cafeteria are free, and it's written in my contract.

The only thing is that because I'm vegetarian, I don't eat most of it anyway. I take rice and some of the side dishes (usually a couple of helpings to make up for the mains that I don't take) and the cafeteria ladies are super nice and often come and bring me dried seaweed to eat with my rice, or ddokguki(?) if there is some. Once they even brought me cream of broccoli soup! Occasionally there's fruit, and I'll take a double serving of that.

Even so, most of the time I'll sit down with my tray of food and my bosses or my coworkers will look at me like I'm some poor starving girl. "Ohhh, so little food! It looks so sad."

I think it's something that should definitely be mentioned in advance! If it were unclear in my case (like, if it hadn't been in the contract), and then it turned out I'd have to pay to eat there, I'd be quite annoyed, because otherwise I'd never eat there. For a free meal, sure, I'll double check with the cafeteria people if there's any meat in the dishes there, but it wouldn't be worth the hassle of it if I had to pay. I'd probably pay it anyway and just not eat there anymore, but I'd be pretty annoyed!