Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jadarite]

I am new to these public school events. Working for 5 years at private schools, I never considered not working during holidays. This morning I was given a schedule addressing vacation time. They planned 6 days from Christmas Eve.

Then they planned an English camp for 6 weeks starting from Jan 19th. 16th-27th in February is Spring Break.

My contract doesn't address vacation time. Since I never took advantage of it in the past (my schedules in the past were light and would travel by having days off privately agreed to with the owner), I don't know what I am legally entitled to and how much is paid for.

Is 10 or 14 the usual number of vacation days I can use? And specifically, with winter, is there any advantage to not take vacation days? I don't want to be traveling at the coldest time of the year.

Any advice on negotiating vacation time would be appreciated. I got paid last week, and they honored other agreements not mentioned in the contract. So, I am not trying to address any problems, just find out how things are played by the book.

[Otherside]

If you signed a GEPIK contract, there MUST be mention of vacation time somewhere. If you signed the contract prior to September 2008 you should have 14 working days, after September 2008 the number is 20 working days.

That being said, you are bound by the contract you signed, if there really is no mention of vacation days...then by all means you are @#$%ed. Why in God's name would you sign a contract without vacation days mentioned?

Usually, schools like to spead out the vacation by having a couple of days in Winter and a couple of days in summer. If you didn't take ANY vacation days in winter, and were then due 20 working days in the summer it would make it impossible for them to have a summer camp.

[farrepatt]

If you started after September 1st you should have 20 days of vacation built right into your contract. If not, you might be able to sign an amendment increasing the vacation days if your start date was around September.

I resigned my contract in late July (for a September renewal) with only 14 days. Then I saw on Dave's that they were increasing the holidays and so I asked my school about it and they increased my vacation days to 20 for me even though I had already signed the old contract.

As for vacation days, my school starts it's holidays on the 22nd of December and starts again February 9th. Then we teach until the 16th and take a 2 week Spring Break. You should be able to the most part be able to choose your 10 days (or 7 if you have only that) whenever you want within reason. Last year I only had 14 days in my contract, but they let me take 9 so you aren't necessarily limited to only half your vacation days.

Keep in mind that Christmas Day, New Year's Day and January 26th and 27th are National Holidays. So you should be off these days automatically and they don't count against your holiday time.

Also, 6 weeks is a lot of Winter Camp to be scheduled for (at least in my experience). I do 3 weeks in the winter and 2 in the summer here. But most other teachers I've met teach 2 at each winter and summer.

[nomad-ish]

[xCustomx]

6 weeks is way too long, especially if you're teaching the same students. What you might try to do is see if you can condense some of the teaching hours into a single day. For winter and summer camps, I teach 6 hours a day for one week, so that I only have one week of camps. That one week is pretty brutal and I'm burnt out at the end, but the extra week of vacation time makes it worthwhile. If you were to do this for three weeks, perhaps you could use the other three weeks for unofficial vacation time.

[jadarite]

Ok, so I am unclear about the vacation time. When you guys say 6 weeks is a lot, what are you really saying? Are you saying that there should be "regular" classes instead or no classes at all?

If there are supposed to be regular classes, then it won't matter, cause basically they are asking me to do more of the same during these camps. They will have less students probably.

If there are supposed to be no classes, then I assume no pay for these days as well? If so, then I would rather do the days since they are offering to keep payment.

Also, I am assuming paid vacation would NOT be an option here. If mistaken, please let me know.

[sojusucks]

Schools prefer that you work around their English camps but some schools will negotiate.

6 weeks is way too much. Your school is definitely taking advantage. Cite other school's two week long camps as a standard and demand overtime pay. Your school will refuse, which is when you can mention working extra for extra vacation time. If they still refuse, then why would you want to continue working at such a dishonest school?

[Draz]

[jadarite]

Ok, let's get to the meat of contract. Please excuse my ignorance on all this.

Article 12 (Paid Leave)

"1.Employee shall be entitled to a paid leave for a total of fourteen (20) working days during the term of the employment."

Looks like they corrected the number but not the fourteen. However, it does show the 20 days mentioned here.

My question is, and I haven't seen a clear answer, are we given more than these 20 days? What is the full normal schedule of a GEPIK teacher?

January is a normal month after returning from winter break until January 19th. At that time school goes into "vacation" mode? Then from Feb 16-27 students are on Spring Break.

In this case "6. During school vacations, Employee may be asked to participate in special classes or English day camps up to twenty(20) hours per week."

So, by the looks of this, I don't see how this is bad. They are willing to pay overtime in this case. I have only been here a year, but I am getting category 1 pay.

Can someone show me their contract which shows during these 6 weeks from January 16 to February 27 (or any other 6 week span of time) they are not working but they are getting paid? If not, I am completely missing how this is bad.

I apologize again if there is something obvious here, but if 6 weeks were meant to be off time for teachers and students then that's like 62 days (2 months counting the 20 noted in the contract). That's a lot of time not working or not getting paid.

[jadarite]

Also, I want to mention that the camp is not full of like 50 students crammed into one class. I was told by my co-teacher that he expects there to be like 20 students, if not less. We would have essentially 1 big class in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. With us co-teaching, I end up doing like 3 hours worth a day.

[xCustomx]

I'll try to make this as simple as possible. You are entitled to 20 days of vacation per year. That is probably divided so you can 10 in summer and 10 in winter. Even if your school is on break, that doesn't mean you are. Korean teachers usually get the whole summer and winter breaks off, except for 2-3 days when they come in and read, use internet, sleep at their desks, etc. You on the other hand have to teach.

You will not be paid overtime for teaching during the break period, unless you teach more than 20 classes a week. According to your contract, you still have to be at school for 8 hours a day. It's up to your principal/vp if they will let you leave early, after you finish your classes for the day.

Some teachers teach 1 or 2 weeks of camps, then get the rest of the time as vacation. It all depends on each school. It appears that you don't get any extra vacation time, and your school is following the contract. You have no grounds to complain, since you signed the contract. Don't tell your co-teacher "but other teachers get more vacation," because most of them won't care. Plus, they are giving you the 10 days off in winter, which you agreed to in the contract.




When I renewed my contract last year, I wrote my vacation dates into my contract. This is not normal, but I did it because I don't trust a word of mouth contract. My principal said he'd give me more vacation, but I wanted everything in writing. By doing so, I now have 7 weeks of winter and spring vacation, with exact dates. All of this is paid vacation by the way.

[jadarite]

xCustomx,

"Even if your school is on break, that doesn't mean you are."

Thanks, that's how I viewed it.

"You will not be paid overtime for teaching during the break period, unless you teach more than 20 classes a week."

But you will get paid. Saying "you will not get paid overtime" means you will not get paid more than a normal base pay?

"Some teachers teach 1 or 2 weeks of camps, then get the rest of the time as vacation."

And this means, they WOULDN'T get paid for this time off right?

"By doing so, I now have 7 weeks of winter and spring vacation, with exact dates. All of this is paid vacation by the way."

14 weeks total? Or 7 weeks where 3.5 are for winter and 3.5 are for spring?

Where do you teach? A public school? Middle school? High school? Univ?

[xCustomx]

[jadarite]

So, it looks like I can make an extra 500 thousand to 1 million on top of my base salary then. Thanks for letting me know.

[xCustomx]