Korean Job Discussion Forums

[camaroclow]

Hey guys. My friends are in a bind here and I was hoping some of you could offer some advice. I told them to contact immigration this morning ASAP and get in touch with the pension office as they aren't paying into their pension. I told them to make sure they do not miss a day of work and to not vacate their apt. Is this sound advice? Any other advice would be appreciated. Here is their blurb...

Hey everybody,

We're pretty upset about this whole situation. xxx and myself got a letter of termination today from our school. Our director apparently has 2 new foreign teachers coming to replace us this Friday and decided to give us a heads up today(monday) at 6PM. We've taught at the school for 9 months. She gave us our first and only letter of warning about 3 weeks ago. Basically saying she doesnt like our teaching style and to correct everything, which we did. But, she still went behind our backs and hired new teachers.
So, she has refused to give us our flight home, also our severance. And, to top it off,she says we have to be out of our apartment by either this Wednesday or Friday, which leaves us less than a week to figure out other living accomodations. She also wont give us our pay for the month of May+ (pay day is always the 10th of every month),until our apartment is vacant, which is really sketchy. She says she will give us a letter of a release, but not until after we have another agency that wants to hire us.So, she says find an agency, get them to send me a letter of release and that is that, or "I will phone immigration and report that you are here illegally".
Anyways, just thought we would let you all know, so that if you hear of any potential urgent jobs .... if you could pass on our phone numbers/emails to potential employers...we would really appreciate it.
If nothing comes up in time, we'll just have to head it back to Canada. Which sucks, because we were looking forward to having a good summer with all of you.

Also, if anyone knows any information about how we can possibly extend our visa to have time to look for another job, that'd be helpful too.

Thanks for any help.

[dean_burrito]

I don't have any experiece in this but I'd definitely do my best to contact the 2 new teachers if at possible before they arrive on Friday. Unlikely they can do that but I'm sure they'd like a heads up. If not I'd let them know what happened after they arrive. They can start preparing for an exit strategy.

As far as pay I think the hagwon owner has more to lose by taking this to immigration. They should still be responsible for the return ticket and another 30 days pay. I say tell your friends to return the threats. They don't have a thing to lose.

[dharma bum]

i don't know enough to post much specific information myself, but i know this sticky thread, which you might have already looked at, has been helpful for others having trouble with their hagwon:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=119477

also, from my understanding, your friends get at least 30 days' notice of termination (or 30 days' pay in lieu of such notice) and there are also laws about not being able to evict people from where they are living without proper notice. because of this, i would say that the first thing they should do is contact the labor board - followed by the pension office to verify that their pension isn't being paid.

the immigration thing might be a little tricky if your friends are dead set on staying here, but the pension issues as well as the lack of notice of termination might give your friends something to work with when negotiating with their hagwon's director.

[camaroclow]

Thanks a lot for the info. Appreciated.

[Pink Freud]

Hi,

The Korean Ministry of Labor homepage:

http://english.molab.go.kr/english/main.jsp


There you can find The Labor Standards Act as a download in pdf format. you want Article 26, "Advance notice of Termination"

You can also find a number for a call center where you will get informed answers about your situation.

Good Luck. Don't cave.

[moosehead]

think about how much time it takes to process a teacher's visa - any teacher whether new or not - and you will see this was in the works for a while, assuming the new teachers arriving will have proper visas, that is.

there is definitely a 30 day notice due; but if some kind of notice was given 3 weeks ago, maybe this dipsht is going to try and say THAT was the notice?? watch out for this - ok?

the whole thing stinks to high heaven, peeeewwwweeeee

[Adjumas Cheekbones]

wow.

I can't sleep and this post will not help.

I totally feel for your friends, this story makes me physically sick.