Korean Job Discussion Forums

[le-paul]

ive heard rumours that its illegal for academies to employ people and not give them either pension or insurance (personal).

Is there any truth in either of these 2 rumours to anyones knowledge?

obviously this question is directed only to people who can spell colour correctly (ie uk citizens).

thanks

[busanliving]

It is illegal.

Many don't offer pay it tho. If not signed up with the national scheme I would insist the school goes halves with you on a private insurance, it can be costly here for medical services.

[English Matt]

If you are going to be working for a hagwon, don't expect them to do what they are supposed to do. They have to make contributions to your medical coverage and pension but they will probably try to cut corners and save money by failing to do so. However, even if this is the case do expect them to make deductions from your pay cheque for both (they will likely be pocketing this money themselves).

As regards pension....it is hugely important that you pay into it as if the National Pension Office (or whatever they are called) cotton on to the fact that they have received no contributions from you, they may well bill you retrospectively for the money owed them, and there will be no hiding behind the statement that you 'thought the boss had handled all that and that everything was above board.'

Busanliving is right that medical costs can be high here, this is however even true if you do have Korean medical coverage. A friend of mine had to go into hospital to have a kidney stone removed....the medical coverage effectively subsidised the treatment for her but she still had to fork out around about �700-800 though.

It would therefore be an extremely good idea if you get yourself some private medical coverage before coming over. Endsleigh provides an excellent policy, but it does cost between �250 and �300 for a year....worth every penny however as it covers you for any trips you take to other countries whilst you are out here, it covers legal costs if you were to fall foul of the law, it covers your baggage whilst in transit....pretty much the whole kit and caboodle. Without it you could end up finding yourself out of pocket after your time in Korea, rather than saving money as I am sure is your intention, were anything to go wrong.

[le-paul]

first, thanks for taking the time to reply.
I dont want it to sound like im casting any doubt on what youve said (about the pensions specifically - as this looks like the thing that is potentially going to land me in trouble), but have you read this somewhere that its illegal. I believe that you are probably right, its just that im pretty p***ed off about this and want to get my facts right before i go into the bosses office and maybe loose it.
Ive been here for 6 months you see and only recently found out about the pension thing. I was led to belive that only americans got the pension and when i originally had it out with my hagwan was told that they dont do pensions. I unfortunately had no way of checking their suspected lies as i dont know any koreans to phone up for me.
Anyways, ill try to find a number for the pensions office and look into it. I know a few people that have been screwed over with insurance contributions so I know this kind of thing happens.

Thanks again for the direction.