Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fromtheuk]

This afternoon, my new co-teacher talks to me about when to take my 2 week contract renewal break e.g. mid-April/early May. My contract ends May 13th.

She phones some GEPIK official and he tells her I can only take that 2 week break for renewal in August 2008, even though the current contract ends May 13th.

I checked my contract it kind of confirms this because there is a clause about me not being allowed to take the 2 weeks if it conflicts with the school's schedule, which is sort of what my co-teacher alluded to.

Thing is, it also states in that clause the 2 weeks must be just before or after the contract ends.

I will explain to my co-teacher I have to return to Britain soon to apostille the criminal check, it can be done online through various companies, but I will try this approach to see if I can get the 2 week break, earlier.

I'll call Wenise Kim etc. soon.

Any advice?

[moosehead]

ask if they you can take it as the 2 weeks prior to the end of your contract; that is, you stop working 2 weeks early.

might work... they'll need a new teacher anyway. probably was hoping you'd resign.

[mrsquirrel]

Explain to them that if they do the visa contract thing early you will not have to leave.

[ED209]

Try to negotiate with your v.principal or principal. They are the 'Deciders'.
Might be a bit more difficult now the gepik official was informed.
You will need a strong reason to go home at this time. Family illness?
I know plenty of teachers who simply have a better relationship with their school and have being able to get Christmas off, return home for a wedding, or just sit on beach somewhere. I also know some who got screwed on vacation.

[cbclark4]

Negotiate in writing.

There a clause in your contract dealing with "home leave" (article 10) and
then there is a later clause dealing with vacation (article 14) in which they
use again the term leave which establishes leave and vacation to mean
the same thing with regards to this contract.

Getting to my point now.

Basically you can negotiate with your Employer (The Principle of the
school signs you contract and is therefore the Employer) for the vacation
time.

Anecdotal inference from personal yadda yadda.

Keep in mind that you are due one week of vacation each semester with
your contract and now 2 weeks of home leave, so you should be able to
negotiate for 3 weeks home leave (you lose 3 days in travel time).

On the other hand be nice to your boss.

Now of course you don't want to interfere with class schedules do look for
days where you will not be scheduled.

I took three weeks after winter camp and before the final session, that
stupid one week where they had conduct 6 classes in between the
graduation ceremnony and the school closing ceremony.

The final say according to the Contract is with the principle, now the
principle will blame it on the POE, so the best way is to put your ideas in
writing, they will always come back with excuses about policy, stick to
your argument quote the crap out of the contract cite the article and
quote phrases then reword the phrase so they know you understand what
you are talking about.

Using the hard ball.

Now you could simply say I am re-signing with you, give me my home
leave or end the contract I'll go home on your dime and my new
employer will buy me ticket to return with.

You can talk hardball with your co-teacher while using the logical
arguments for writing for the principal to see.

I think I save the letters I used if you need a template.

[nomad-ish]

[cbclark4]

In the end if I had it to do all over again I would have ended the contract
and taken longer vacation before returning, the battle wasn't worth three
short weeks at home.

There is absolutely no advantage to staying with the same school or
province.