Korean Job Discussion Forums

[r.]

Need advice, anecdotes, etc.

Long story short, hogwon closed biz on us with no notice. The labor board granted us a judgement of about 9 weeks wages, plus pension that hadn't been paid. However, the ex-owners still don't want to pay up.

Our labor board lawyers say we basically have two options at this point:

1.) Apply to a government Wage Security Fund "체당금". We will likely be successful, but we can only recoup a small percentage of what we are owed through this route (less than 20%) and can't get pension, and waive our right to take further action for the remaining cash.

2.) File a civil suit. Our labor board lawyers can't file a civil suit, so we would have to get new lawyers for this action. Our labor board lawyers say we are not likely to be successful, because it will be difficult for us to discover the ex-owners' assets. We know the owners to be wealthy, so we find this hard to believe. The labor board lawyers say it is our responsibility to find out what cash and property the bosses own, and the gov't would not help us out with this. Being foreigners, we don't knopw how to get this info. The labor board lawyers say his listed residence is not owned by him. And it is more diffcult because the business was closed. So without assets, we can't get paid... If we pursue the civil case, due to a deadline, we can't do option 1 if we fail.


SO I am looking for advice from people who are familiar with situations like this. We have about 1 week to decide which option to take.

If anyone has contact info for lawyers (who can file a civil suit) or legal organizations able to help us, please pass it along to me.

Thanks for the help!

[iggyb]

Start googling. Sit in a PC Bang all day and night if you have to. There are resources out there with people who can give you MUCH better advice than you will get on Dave's --- advice from actual lawyers and labor people.

Contact your embassy. Your embassy will likely have a list of lawyers. I know the US Embassy used to. Much of them were corporate-types, but some of them give advice if only to point you to other lawyers who fit your needs.

Contract the non-governmental agencies that have grown up the last ten years to handle migrant and immigrant workers' rights. They will have English speakers. --- Of course, it is always good to have a Korean speaker with good language ability you can depend on.

Those agencies will also have lawyer contacts and will be able to give advice on how to handle this and what your chances are.

If you've won at the labor board already, I'd give a wild guess you will at least get some lawyers to pay attention to you while you try to sell them on taking your case. You've proven your serious and will follow through.

Resources to help out migrant and immigrant workers have built up in the last ten years. If you google, you'll find them.

If you are in Seoul, it will be a big help.

Get the list of lawyers and advice from your Embassy and the labor NGOs... They will give you better advice than we can here...

[iggyb]

P.S. -- If the guy is wealthy, there is at least a slight possibility he can grease things with the Labor Board - especially against a foreigner.

If it were me, I would seek at least two opinions if the first lawyer or group I contact gets in touch with the boss and comes back saying you should forget about it.

Corruption in Korea might have gotten better since I was last there. I don't know. But it has been known as an envelop-society in which a wad of bills in one was often used to buy support. Don't trust just one lawyer because he is a lawyer. It's not being paranoid, it is being thorough.

[CentralCali]

[iggyb]

Irrelevant? No...and the OP hinted why:

[yingwenlaoshi]

Yeah, I wouldn't trust the labor board. They had to decide for you in this case, but look what's happening now. Anything slightly favoring the employer exponentially raises the chances of them winning. Now the labor board lawyers are getting you to take the easy route for the employer. Not hard to see what's going on behind the scenes here.

I've heard some bad stories about the labor board.

[iggyb]

OP,

You would be doing all of us a service if --- you would post and update contact information you find and how helpful or unhelpful they were. This will help people gain some understanding and help future site searchers find the information...

[waynehead]

I wish you well and would just remind you (I'm sure I don't have to) to blacklist the heck outta this guy and his hagwon.

[asylum seeker]

[ontheway]

[iggyb]

Don't make a decision until you have contacted at least one lawyer you locate through your embassy or one of the labor-related NGOs that help immigrant workers....

That is the bottom line. Do not take our advice here. Correction - don't let the advice from a non-lawyer be the primary guide of your decision. There are lawyers who will listen to you somewhere. It might be a pain tracking one down, but you can do it.

--- On being wealthy or not based on the school going bankrupt:

If he is a real business man, and has had more than one company going at a time, then it could easily be a case where he crapped out in the highly competitive hakwon industry during a major economic downturn when families are tightening their belts and cutting back on expenses by dropping cram school expenses.

But, he could still be rolling in dough from his investments and other businesses.

A real business person is not going to keep dumping money earned from his other businesses into the one that is failing to the point he bankrupts himself.

[D.D.]

If I had a new job in Korea and could continue fighting the case without paying for lawyers I would go for it. If I was leaving Korea I would just forget about it and move on. I would try to get what came easily but wouldn't get caught in a big fight for a small amount of cash. Sorry to hear about you getting screwed over.

[PRagic]

Double check the info you're getting from the labour board. They are supposed to pursue payment on your behalf if you haven't received compensation by a set date. Don't let them drop the ball on you now.

[r.]

[wylies99]

You have to file a Civil Suit to collect the money. You can get representation by the Prosecutor's office.