Korean Job Discussion Forums

eIn07912 · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Location: seoul

About to end my contract and was just reviewing some of the finer details one last time...

Upon completion of a one-year contract, Employer shall pay Employee an extra 30 days' average wage as a severance pay for Employee's continuous employment of one year.

It's the extra 30 days' average wage that jumps out at me. Now, I've been paid the same salary all year, minus one month in summer with the summer camp bonus, and for some reason January, where it was minus 100,000 (for a reason I've yet to get an answer for.)

Since it says average, does that mean the summer salary or the January salary should be calculated? Or does the bonus for summer camp fall outside of this for some reason?

I may be contacting a lawyer for this (as well as a few other issues... trust me, you don't want to work for this school) and I'm wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this??

Any advice would be appreciated.

littlelisa · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Location: Seoul

By labour law, pretty sure it's the average of the last three months, including overtime.

Edit: That January thing sounds suspicious, though, better get that checked out.

Girlygirl · Joined: 31 Oct 2008

[quote="littlelisa"]By labour law, pretty sure it's the average of the last three months, including overtime.

Is this based on personal experience or simply a guess? Where does it stipulate such clause in this labour law? I'd really like to get my hands on it. A while ago, I posted a similar question about OT & Severance, but no response.

Here's my situation: 1/3 of my pay is from OT. When I received my severance pay, my pay guy said OT is not included (only the average last 3 months base salary)

littlelisa · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Location: Seoul

[quote="Girlygirl"]

littlelisa · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Location: Seoul

http://koreabridge.com/jobforums/viewtopic.php?t=1824&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

I know the thread is old, but I don't think the law has changed.

OculisOrbis · Joined: 17 Jul 2006

Its the last 3 months including OT. Carla has the details and references the law in this post:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=164936&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Girlygirl · Joined: 31 Oct 2008

Thanks for the links. I guess I wasn't being specific enough. I was trying to see who here has actually received OT in their severance pay. For 2 years I have never received severance pay with OT, but people here claim such thing.

I understand in Korea having an ACT (labour law) is one thing, enforcing it is another. I don't think my pay guy would actually screw me over 'cause he probably isn't aware of this ACT.

Now what? If you guys are right, then they owe me a shit load of $.

Thanks again.

I should also add that my OT comes from 3 different pots of money. (1. Provincial Off of Ed. 2. Municipal (Town) Off of Ed. 3. School itself.) The 2nd is the one who handles my regular pay. Could this be the problem why my OT wasn't included in the severance pay?

buster brown · Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Location: Seoul

When I first came to Korea, I worked at a National Univ. unigwon that had the same type clause in their contract...something like "At the end of 1 year, the unigwon will pay severance according to Korean law. Severance is equal to one month's regular pay." Sometime during that year, I read the Labor Standards Act and found that it was the average of my final 3 months, including bonuses and overtime. I printed out those clauses from the Labor Standards Act and gave them to my director, who told me she'd look over them, but didn't.

Near the end of the year, when I was planning to re-sign, I was presented with the exact same contract, with the same incorrect clause. I again told the director of the error and that I wouldn't sign with it in the contract, since it disagreed with Korean labor law. It was too late for them to start looking for a new teacher, so several higher-up administrators got involved. The result was that I got the correct severance for the first year, changed the clause in the second contract, and other co-workers who had re-signed during the same year got their additional severance amounts.

I think you're right in your observation that the pay guy doesn't know about the law. No one at our (National) university was aware of it, because no one had ever pointed it out to them. I also approached my director as if I wanted to help them correct a problem with their contract, not in a confrontational manner like they were stealing money from me. All you can do is show them what's right and wait for their response. Then you'll know what you have to do.