Korean Job Discussion Forums

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

Yuyake79 - Keep pushing through the labor board. Do not do anything spiteful towards the owner. Do not convince their students to quit. Do not discuss the issue with your coworkers. Do not post your name, the school's name or your director's name here until everything is settled. Many contracts have confidentiality clauses built in, and breaking them can be grounds for immediate termination.

Play it cool. Go to work everyday like you normally would. If you've been there more than 6 months your owner must give you written notice of termination 30 days in advance. Until you get that, keep going to work. If he is claiming that 15 students quit because of you, you need to get a copy of your class role and prove that the students didn't quit, didn't exsist, or quit because of other reasons. Document, Document, Document. If they did in fact quit because of you and the owner can provide evidence, you are SOL. If your owner is totally making it up he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Offer to cut him a deal. Get a release letter, 11 months worth of severance and every dime for each day you worked or you will continue through the labor board. He can't fire you in your final month, with a made up excuse, without trying to remedy the situation first.

winterfall · Joined: 21 May 2009

MacLean · Joined: 14 Feb 2011

Ignore the above post by 'Mathew's world'. Did all of the students suddenly start leaving in the tenth or eleventh month? If not, he could have fired you months ago. But he decided to keep you for eleven months. The Labour board, and common sense won't buy it. Either way, you're gone in a month. Why does the owner not just honour the contract for another measly month. You deserve your full pay and severance. If he doesn't want you around next year, well he has the right to not renew your contract. But firing someone in the 11th month doesn't cut it. And for what? Speaking Korean in class. Confused

One more thing. Students quit for a hundred different reasons. But hogwan owners love to try to pin the departures on the foreign teacher, even if not one left because of him. It gives him an excuse to try and scam you out of your severance. Finally, he has to give you 30 days notice of firing. Thirty days completes your contract. Very Happy

The Labour Board will see through this nonsense. Get the labour board to phone your school today!

OculisOrbis · Joined: 17 Jul 2006

Dont totally ignore the aboveX2 post. If youre boss isnt contributing to your pension - you are owed that, too. But you need to talk to the pension office, not labor, to get that process moving. It's another couple million won that you can get and your boss will be extra pissed. In addition, to coming clean on his pension payments, he will also get hit with a hefty fine by the pension office. Same as before, start at the local office and move up the ladder until they do something.

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

MacLean · Joined: 14 Feb 2011

Sorry jrwhite. I wasn't refering to your post. You advice is spot on. I recommend that the OP follow it. The post that I was referring to was by Matthew's World. But by the time I wrote "Ignore the post above" you and another person had posted. So it looked like I was referring to your post. Not the case.

yuyake79 · Joined: 26 Jan 2011

My contract is a little wierd concerning the hours. This is what it says concerning the hours.
2. Terms
(a) Working schedule: Monday to Friday 8 hours a day.

5. Duties
(c) The Employee shall wherever so required for the proper fulfillment of his duties work without further renumeration in excess of the normal hours of work at (school's name), which are 30 hours from Monday to Friday.

I know it doesn't make sense but that's what it says. According to 2(a) my working hours are 40hrs/week. According to 5(c) on the other page it says that my working hours are 30hrs/week.

He gives me the normal rate even if I work 40hrs/week.

The contract doesn't say anything about the over time rate.

But, he does pay over time if we teach over 30 classes/week. I think it's 25,000 for every extra class we teach. But extra classes have always been within the set working hours (2.a) It's just the way the school does it for all foreign teachers, although the contract itself doesn't mention anything about the number of classes we're meant to be teaching nor anything about over time pay.

I don't have medical/pension. And there is no mention of it in the contract. But they did ask us (my coworker and myself) last year if we wanted medical and/or pension, but they recommended that we didn't take it for a reason that I can't remember now. My coworker and I thought it was a rip off so we didn't take it. Anyway, there is no mention of it in the contract. Could I get in big trouble for not accepting it?

In the contract under Taxes it says;
The employee shall be liable for all taxes levied by the Korean government.
So, it doesn't say how much tax I should have been paying. But I assume the "ish" on the 23ish would be the tax. Otherwise I'd be getting a clean 24mil after the 600,000 rent money gets taken off my monthly 3mil. So 79,200 won gets taken out of my salary every month. Does 79,200 won for tax sound right?

Yes, the contract doesn't say anything about housing, so that's why I've always had it taken out of my monthly salary. Although, I should be getting my full 3mil (-tax) for March right? Because I am paying the landlady the 600,000 myself, and not through the school, this month.

winterfall · Joined: 21 May 2009

Conflicting contract terms is not a good sign. Honestly I'm not even sure if your entitled to overtime especially since you said this:

yuyake79 · Joined: 26 Jan 2011

Every month we get a set monthly schedule. I am meant to have no more than 30 classes/week. So if I teach 30 classes (or less) every week for a month, for that month I should get exactly 2,320,800. But say I teach 31 classes/week, as I did last month. Then I should be getting an extra 25,000 per week for that 1 extra class. So, I should be getting an extra 100,000 on top of my salary.
The school does it this way according to it's own rules, and not according to the contract. It doesn't bother me.

The school didn't lose 15 students because of me. The number of students at the school now is about the same as when I first started. This is what happened;
The school likes to hire teachers at the start of the school year (March 1) because that's what parents want. Two teachers finished their contracts at the end of Feb last year. They hired two new teacher for March but the school botched up the visa process for both of those new teachers and they became illegal and so a month later the teachers had to go back to their countries. The school had to pay for their flights and I think the school got fined too. So, then the school urgently needed two new teachers to replace them. That's when me and my coworker came in and we both started in April. A lot of parents pulled their kids out because they didn't like having teachers changed around like that. And also, I wasn't there but I heard that March was a hard month for the school because those two new teachers ended up not teaching a lot of their classes during that month because they ended up being illegal after immigration inspectors came.
Anyway, a lot of students dropped out during that time and that's why my boss wanted me to finish at the end of Feb or renew so he doesn't have a repeat of last year's little incident. I'm not renewing because I haven't been home in 3 years and I want to go home. (I worked at other schools before this last contract) Plus, the school has no money to pay me my severance + March's salary, especially after hiring new teachers in my final month.

Anyway, I guess that's how losing 15 students ended up being "MY" fault. And somehow it's linked with me using Korean in class too. That's why I got fired.

yuyake79 · Joined: 26 Jan 2011

Every month we get a set monthly schedule. I am meant to have no more than 30 classes/week. So if I teach 30 classes (or less) every week for a month, for that month I should get exactly 2,320,800. But say I teach 31 classes/week, as I did last month. Then I should be getting an extra 25,000 per week for that 1 extra class. So, I should be getting an extra 100,000 on top of my salary.
The school does it this way according to it's own rules, and not according to the contract. It doesn't bother me.

The school didn't lose 15 students because of me. The number of students at the school now is about the same as when I first started. This is what happened;
The school likes to hire teachers at the start of the school year (March 1) because that's what parents want. Two teachers finished their contracts at the end of Feb last year. They hired two new teacher for March but the school botched up the visa process for both of those new teachers and they became illegal and so a month later the teachers had to go back to their countries. The school had to pay for their flights and I think the school got fined too. So, then the school urgently needed two new teachers to replace them. That's when me and my coworker came in and we both started in April. A lot of parents pulled their kids out because they didn't like having teachers changed around like that. And also, I wasn't there but I heard that March was a hard month for the school because those two new teachers ended up not teaching a lot of their classes during that month because they ended up being illegal after immigration inspectors came.
Anyway, a lot of students dropped out during that time and that's why my boss wanted me to finish at the end of Feb or renew so he doesn't have a repeat of last year's little incident. I'm not renewing because I haven't been home in 3 years and I want to go home. (I worked at other schools before this last contract) Plus, the school has no money to pay me my severance + March's salary, especially after hiring new teachers in my final month.

Anyway, I guess that's how losing 15 students ended up being "MY" fault. And somehow it's linked with me using Korean in class too. That's why I got fired.

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

Well if that's the case you should get most of what's owed to you through the labor board.

Shady hagwon owners get what's coming to them eventually. It's too bad they need to mess up many NETs along the way. They've screwed up in the past and they continue to screw up. It is not your fault that your 12 month falls at a bad time for the school. They should have taken measures to fix the problem. But instead of addressing it, they let it continue and now its going to blow up in their faces again.

Go to the pension office too and get your money from them for that too. They really don't have a leg to stand on. There is no way they can attribute those students who quit at the begining of your contract to you. And if they try, how can they relate something that happend 10 and a half months ago to you getting fired now. Labor board will not side with them, especially if they've had trouble in the past.

However, even if a ruling does come out in your favor, it doesn't mean you'll get your money any time soon or at all. That's why I still suggest trying to cut a deal. Look at it this way. You get most of what's owed to you upfront without worrying about getting it from your home country. They get to save face by having you leave and they get to have their teachers at the beginning of the school term.

Skyblue · Joined: 02 Mar 2007

Skyblue · Joined: 02 Mar 2007

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

OP: If you decided to leave Korea (or have to), see if you can get a friend to agree to appear on your behalf at the Labor Board. If needed, you can even execute the assignment letter for that friend at a Korean consulate wherever you end up. Just because you're no longer in the country does not mean the boss can weasel out of his obligations.

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

CC gives a good idea there.

Also yuyake - Do not speak to the new teachers about what is going on. Although it would be nice to warn them, spreading dissent among fellow employees is a quick way to get terminated on the spot and legally.