Korean Job Discussion Forums

kiwiluvesyew · Joined: 29 Apr 2008

I've gone on their website and I can't find a number anywhere! I live in Changwon, near Busan.
Here's the story:
My hagwon is flat out stealing money from me in the form of a overcharged maintenance fee. They insist we are wrong, but we've talked with the landlady more than once and she even wrote down that it was 30,000 won for both of us (while the school is charging us 30,000 each).

So the school was asking for the money for our legit bills (while strangely unable to show half of them to us) and we were telling them that we want our overcharging figured out before we pay them anything. Now they haven't mentioned anything for about a week and I'm thinking they're just going to take a huge chunk out of our pay and say it was for these bills.

Tomorrow, I am going to go to them and ask to get the bills so i can just pay for them myself at the bank (since they conveniently never remember when we do pay bills). BUT i doubt they will let me do that.

Reason - when we first asked about the maintenance fee (i.e. why are we paying this because no one told us about it before now). Our director was like "School gets no benefit from this. We pay directly to landlady. We do you a favor because you cannot speak Korean. If you wanted to, you could pay it, but we're doing you a favor."

So we paid it and then later said we want to pay the landlady ourselves. THEN *all of a sudden* there is a "policy". And apparently it's against policy for us to do that. Hmmmm..... I guess it's the let's rip off the foreigner policy.

And they are lying to the NTS and pension.

kprrok · Joined: 06 Apr 2004 Location: KC

And why would Immigration give a damn about this?

Collect your receipts and pay stubs and any other evidence you have, and go to the Labor Board.

maddog · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Location: Daegu

Labor board. Call 1350.

You should pay your own bills precisely to avoid this kinda sh!t. The fact that your boss is telling that it's against company policy for you to pay you own bills means he's as shifty and untrustworthy as they come.

Out of curiousity, how much to do you pay in bills. This would give us an idea of whether or not he's stealing from you.

Bibbitybop · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Location: Seoul

Immigration hotline is 1345

TheChickenLover · Joined: 17 Dec 2007 Location: The Chicken Coop

The number for immigration is written clearly on your ARC. Rolling Eyes

Teelo · Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Location: Wellington, NZ

aphase · Joined: 27 Apr 2006

demand that you want to pay those bills yourself. Seriously, I've been here for quite a while, and I never heard of employers paying bills on the employees behalf (other than rent). Tell them that you want to pay the fees yourself, there shouldn't be a policy against it, doesn't make sense.

Also, they should at least be able to show you the bills.

If they do happen to take a big chunk of your pay to cover it, I would just refuse to teach classes until it's resolved. They need you more than you need them, and I doubt they are going to go through the hassle of firing you in order to keep you from seeing/paying your own bills.

maddog · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Location: Daegu

DON'T call immi. It's nothing to do with them. They won't give a rat's ass. Call the labor board.

kiwiluvesyew · Joined: 29 Apr 2008

so just 1350... nothing else?

Well, my employer now says that the school already paid the bills because we wouldn't pay them... basically they were just writing numbers down on paper and saying "why won't you pay this?" we told them we had to get the actual bills and they only ever showed us copies of three of them. now i'm pretty certain that my next paycheck is going to have close to 200,000 won taken out for these bills they would never show us.

also, we've talked with our landlady twice and keep getting the same answer about our maintenance fee. school refuses to admit they are overcharging us and SURPRISINGLY when i asked for her phone number so i could have a korean call to make sure agin we were right, he MYSTERIOUSLY lost her phone number when it was on his cell phone's speed dial last week.

fucking slimy crooks.

maddog · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Location: Daegu

aphase · Joined: 27 Apr 2006

so why don't you just stop teaching classes until they get their act straight? thats what i would do.

kiwiluvesyew · Joined: 29 Apr 2008

FYI: For anyone that read that 1350 will get you to the Labor Board, just know that you will hear a very long message in Korean and no one will answer the phone. I called at 10am so I assume they were open and not at lunch. I did find their website and got this number:

043)730-2741

@ aphase: I don't think threatening to not teach would work, since they are itching for reasons to fire us, and keep this last month's pay.

kiwiluvesyew · Joined: 29 Apr 2008

Nvmd, that was not their website but Galbijim and it took me to the pension office.

maingman · Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Location: left Korea

i called today, 1345 Rolling Eyes

twicwe AND they were busy

call back later

Freakstar · Joined: 29 Jun 2007

OP, sorry to hear that your hagwon owner is a shady SOB. I hope you get it sorted out. And wtf? How difficult is it to find the correct phone number and lodge a complaint with the right people? Apparently, it's VERY difficult as it's been at least 4 days since he posted his question, and he still hasn't been able to speak to the people that he needs to get in touch with. Makes me mad. Maybe I'm just drunk and in a foul mood right now, but for some reason, this thread has me all fired up! Evil or Very Mad

Seoul and every major city in Korea should have an easy access website for foreigners (in several languages) with a comprehensive listing of emergency phone numbers and other useful contact information for major local and government agencies. Maybe they do have such a website...anyone know what it is?