Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

http://www.themidnightrunner.com

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

What good is a teacher with swine flu?

D.D. · Joined: 29 May 2008

D.D. · Joined: 29 May 2008

You can invite him to a a party with many other foreign teachers and apply for their jobs after they get fired.

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

What good is a teacher with a cold? Both conditions are contagious and both conditions are temporary.

I listened to the podcast. "Mark" got some bad information. He mentioned that he was told if he got another job in Korea, he could no longer pursue his former employer for 30 days pay. That's incorrect.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

It also sounds like he is counting 2 weeks before he got swine flu as 3 months pay. He didn't get paid for 3 months? If so, shouldn't that be 3.5 months?

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

The only change in laws that apply to anything in that particular podcast was that not so long ago a Korean court ruled that the truth is a defense against a charge of libel/slander. If what's said/published is (a) true and (b) for the betterment of society, then there's no libel/slander.

I know that one can still pursue a case against a former employer after getting another job within one month. I did it. The pension office, the health office, the tax office, and the labor board all had their parts in that particular dance.

By the way, I posted the "Swine Flu Management Manual" I, along with every other BMOE employee, received electronically this Monday.

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

Those 3 months shouldn't count then. I mean, what if the school stopped paying at 6 months, meaning he didn't hypothetically get paid months 7,8, and 9? Would that have been more than 3 months worth of pay?

Of course not. I don't see how you can count 3 months into the future as lost income. He has chosen to either work in Korea or go home. Either he will be making those three months here, or he will go home.

If it matters so much to you that you finish the year, then I suggest you not travel to Thailand like "Mark" did.

If he gets another job in Korea, he should try to go for that one month notice thing.

ontheway · Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:02 am Post subject:

Teachers in Korea should all face the reality of this swine flu situation: People around the world, and especially Koreans, have developed a raging, media-fed, case of paranoia about this year's flu, even though the CDC has repeatedly said that, at this time, they do not expect that it will be worse than any other year.

As a result, Koreans are closing public and private schools when just one student or teacher has a case of swine flu. Parents are afraid to send their children to any school if they hear that any child from any one of the closed schools also attends the unaffected school. Even when those children are disease free.

Of course, they will withdraw their children in greater panic if they hear that a teacher is or was infected. Even after you are well and disease free, you will cause too many parents to pull their children out of school - public or private - to be allowed to continue teaching. We are the dirty, disease ridden, typhoid Marys and we will face the burden of being the scapegoats.

Korea has worked its citizens up into a state of mass hysteria about the swine flu and nationwide panic could set in at any time. Since normally, hundreds or thousands of Koreans would die from the flu in any given year, and since this year we can expect the same, and since each of those deaths will be reverberate throughout Korea as the media flogs the gongs of hysteria, teachers who catch the swine flu, or any type of flu this year should expect that they will lose their jobs. Their schools may close as a result - some for temporary periods, some permanently.

It is unfortunate what happened to the teacher on the podcast. We can expect this event to be replayed again and again over the next 9 months. He should get his 30 days pay for being terminated. He should not get his flight or severance. Sorry.

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:26 am Post subject:

The guy got fired...he is owed what the contract stipulates. It does not matter what some of you "feel" about what he should get. What matters is what the law says he should get.

If the school followed its contractual agreement on employment termination then thats the end of the story for "Mark". We can disagree with the way he was fired but if the school followed the contract it had with "Mark" then game over.

I will have to agree about how Korea (and many other countries) is reacting to this H1N1 pandemic. The media is whipping people into a frenzy and playing on their fears. The thing is, as a foreign educator you NEED to be aware of this and make CHOICES accordingly! Do not depend on what you think will happen but rather consider the POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES of your actions and READ your bloody contracts. If your school issues a H1N1 policy...read it and follow it as much as reasonably possible.

If that means they warn teachers that go abroad during their contract that this could lead to employement loss should they catch H1N1...then make your choice: go and accept what may happen or do not go and do something else in Korea. Then at the end of your contract or when this H1N1 thing blows over..choose wether you stay in Korea longer or not.

This is too bad for "Mark" and for others. But schools will act according to what the parents say. Parents are scared for their kids because of the media. You CANNOT win this battle vs the K-media. You therefore have a rational choice to make. Tough...yes, unfortunate...yes....crazy...sure...but a choice nevertheless.

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

Swine Flu ---

On one of the K-blogs, in the comments section, an expat businessman who has owned and operated clubs in Korea for some years said that what he is hearing from Korean business men/hakwon owners is that they are getting ready for the likelihood they will have to shut down the business for a couple of months at some point this year due to Swine Flu hyper-hysteria, and that they are cutting costs now in preparation for the revenue they expect to lose.

I don't know enough to weigh the value of this info. But it is something to think about...

Whistleblower · Joined: 03 Feb 2007

Korean Hagwon Management

Number 1
Don't pay into national pension. This shows a weakness of management.

Number 2
Don't arrange National Health Insurance or you would have to pay Pension.

Number 3
Your teacher is a slave. Work him like one.

Number 4
If a teacher is sick, do not pay sick pay.

Number 5
If a teacher contracts birdflu, swineflu or any other illness sack the teacher otherwise you would be liable to pay minimum sickpay and may have to close the school due to mass histeria from parents.