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cobradiner
Joined: 14 Oct 2010
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 Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 7:44 pm Post subject: I'm getting sued. Now what?? |
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Continuing from: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=202396
I'm sorry I'm starting new topic, but I'm getting so stressed out now from my situation. I have no idea what I should do.
Now my boss told she's not planning on paying me for my last two months and just wants to sue me for "leaving a bad mark on her school." Two parents of the students in my class have already quit, so I think she wants to blame it on me and try to take my last two paychecks. I have about $500 in my bank account at home. I was DEPENDING on getting at least the February payment to at least get myself home if needed. Now I don't have any money for a flight ticket out of Korea nonetheless the money to hire a lawyer.
How the **** am I supposed to get out this one? I suppose my parents from home could buy me the plane ticket, and then the lawsuit would be dropped since I would be leaving Korea right?? At this point I would be happy to home empty-handed just to get the hell away from my boss  |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 8:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Get your parents to help you buy a ticket if necessary. I'm missing something from your blog. If a Korean is threatening to sue you, it's because they've lost face. The threats are usually empty threats. Tell her, you'll work out the contract if she gives you your pay and flight ticket home. I would for 6 weeks. She's prob mad you're leaving. But you have to have a backbone and stand up to it. They will push and push and keep pushing if they think they can get away with it. If necessary, just go home and reapply. Then when you go home, find a recruiter and any numerous job ads or recruitment from a public school and chain hogwan. Apply for one of those. Just say your boss didn't pay you and was constantly late with the money and that's why you had to leave. This was a continuing trend when you were there the last couple of months. Finally she didn't pay you, so you flew home. That's how you deal with a shady hogwan and get around a potentially bad reference. Find a recruiter and a company that will look past that. Anyone that relies on a so called blacklist is prob a company you don't want to work for anyways. Of course this is untested in a saturated job market. Prior to the recession, this was much easier to do. |
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hapigokelli
Joined: 04 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:13 pm Post subject: |
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| This is ridiculous. She cannot sue you. If you she tries to keep your pay or not fullfill the contract in any way, go to the labor board. They will help you out. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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Toddle off to the labor office.
Can she sue = sure.
Can she win = unlikely unless you actually did defame / libel the school AND she can prove it.
Can she withhold wages = NO. It is illegal and she is required to pay it.
Toddle off to the labor office and file a formal complaint. If you win, you won't need a LOR to transfer either. The labor case is sufficient reason for Kimmi to allow the transfer without the blessing of your old boss.
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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| she's not planning on paying me for my last two months |
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| I have about $500 in my bank account at home. I was DEPENDING on getting at least the February payment to at least get myself home if needed. |
2 million won salary for 10 months, comes to 20 million won. How did you spend all that in 10 months?
Regardless how right you are, you need to learn to manage your money. Then when stuff like this happens you can be cool as a cucumber. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:29 am Post subject: |
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| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| Quote: |
| she's not planning on paying me for my last two months |
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| I have about $500 in my bank account at home. I was DEPENDING on getting at least the February payment to at least get myself home if needed. |
2 million won salary for 10 months, comes to 20 million won. How did you spend all that in 10 months?
Regardless how right you are, you need to learn to manage your money. Then when stuff like this happens you can be cool as a cucumber. |
You realize a lot of people come here with pretty serious loans to pay off, right? I'm guessing the OP didn't blow 20 million in Hongdae. |
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siwawalter
Joined: 16 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:33 am Post subject: Re: I'm getting sued. Now what?? |
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If you had to do it all over again, would you teach in South Korea?
| cobradiner wrote: |
Continuing from: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=202396
I'm sorry I'm starting new topic, but I'm getting so stressed out now from my situation. I have no idea what I should do.
Now my boss told she's not planning on paying me for my last two months and just wants to sue me for "leaving a bad mark on her school." Two parents of the students in my class have already quit, so I think she wants to blame it on me and try to take my last two paychecks. I have about $500 in my bank account at home. I was DEPENDING on getting at least the February payment to at least get myself home if needed. Now I don't have any money for a flight ticket out of Korea nonetheless the money to hire a lawyer.
How the **** am I supposed to get out this one? I suppose my parents from home could buy me the plane ticket, and then the lawsuit would be dropped since I would be leaving Korea right?? At this point I would be happy to home empty-handed just to get the hell away from my boss |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:47 am Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| Quote: |
| she's not planning on paying me for my last two months |
| Quote: |
| I have about $500 in my bank account at home. I was DEPENDING on getting at least the February payment to at least get myself home if needed. |
2 million won salary for 10 months, comes to 20 million won. How did you spend all that in 10 months?
Regardless how right you are, you need to learn to manage your money. Then when stuff like this happens you can be cool as a cucumber. |
You realize a lot of people come here with pretty serious loans to pay off, right? I'm guessing the OP didn't blow 20 million in Hongdae. |
If I had a 20 million won loan back home, I wouldn't be causing problems with a hagwon. I would save the money up, take it in stride, finish the year, collect the severance, and move on to the next school.
That is EXACTLY what I did with a 300 dollar loan my dad gave me. I worked 6 months before I paid him off. That is 2.5 million won job. So I had well over 10,000 before I considered leaving the school.
This teacher has made several mistakes along the way, so while I am not 100% in the hagwon's corner, the teacher needs to learn how to handle these things.
Plus, sending all that money home to pay off a loan isn't the best way to pay off a loan. Rich people are rich because they hold on to money. People are are poor because they give back the money they get. You can be a homeless person and get enough for a sandwich. Then you are out on the streets trying to collect another 3 dollars.
In this case what you are proposing is that they got 20,000 to pay off a loan. Same thing as the homeless person, they are returning to zero.
Rich people owe a lot of money to other people. They aren't as rich as you think, but they sure aren't at a loss for a plane ticket when they want it.
Something to think about folks. |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 1:08 am Post subject: |
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If it's easier for you to stay in Korea, look for another job.
There are directors who realize that many other directors are looney birds. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 1:16 am Post subject: |
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| lifeinkorea wrote: |
If I had a 20 million won loan back home, I wouldn't be causing problems with a hagwon. I would save the money up, take it in stride, finish the year, collect the severance, and move on to the next school.
That is EXACTLY what I did with a 300 dollar loan my dad gave me. I worked 6 months before I paid him off. That is 2.5 million won job. So I had well over 10,000 before I considered leaving the school.
This teacher has made several mistakes along the way, so while I am not 100% in the hagwon's corner, the teacher needs to learn how to handle these things.
Plus, sending all that money home to pay off a loan isn't the best way to pay off a loan. Rich people are rich because they hold on to money. People are are poor because they give back the money they get. You can be a homeless person and get enough for a sandwich. Then you are out on the streets trying to collect another 3 dollars.
In this case what you are proposing is that they got 20,000 to pay off a loan. Same thing as the homeless person, they are returning to zero.
Rich people owe a lot of money to other people. They aren't as rich as you think, but they sure aren't at a loss for a plane ticket when they want it.
Something to think about folks. |
The difference is that while the rich guy can always default on his loans if everything goes to crap, the guy paying off his student loans is legally barred from defaulting (if he's American). Hanging on to student loan debt is a pretty terrible idea, particularly if it's private. |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 1:53 am Post subject: |
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| Hanging on to student loan debt is a pretty terrible idea, particularly if it's private. |
Come on now, that isn't what I was saying at all. Show me a student loan that says you have to pay 20,000 off 1,500 every month.
This person in theory would have done this, and that is THEIR choice. It isn't defaulting if you don't pay more than the minimum. |
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cobradiner
Joined: 14 Oct 2010
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:13 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the replies guys. It means so much to me for you guys to reply so fast.
After talking with my Korean friend from Immigration, he recommends that I go the humble route at this point. I made a lot of mistakes while teaching today because I'm so stressed out, but he says I need to apologize for all that went wrong yesterday and say it was all my fault. He said I should be willing to do anything she says to improve the school, but of course I should not rewrite that resignation note to say it's all my fault. He says for the next 2 weeks if I say "yes ma'am" and do everything exactly as she wants, then she'll be nicer to me and perhaps even pay me. If she doesn't pay me on the last day of work, then that's when I should go to the labor board he says. And as a final resort I should go to the US Embassy if all things become hopeless.
Is this my option you guys think? I'm inclined to think so even though my boss wants to destroy me in court. |
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PardonTheInterruption
Joined: 02 Mar 2011
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:26 am Post subject: |
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| cobradiner wrote: |
| Is this my option you guys think? |
End of the day you have the best idea of the vibe you're getting from your boss. In my opinion, if you can be nice about it and make the effort to try to patch things up, it will make the last of your teaching experience there that much better than dreading going in to see the she-wolf. On the other hand, I would listen to some of these posts and at least do your research on how to fight back, that way if the milk turns out to be sour at the end of it all, you're already prepared on the steps you need to take.
Make sure your parents know what the situation is, incase you need to cash in on them. |
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minos
Joined: 01 Dec 2010
Location: kOREA
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:35 am Post subject: |
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It's a bluff.
Koreans love to bluff...and they hate to lose. It's why they suck at gambling.
I was in a situation where I held all of the cards and the boss didn't back down up until the very end...
I got all my money, a decent recommendation(!), and a LOR from my previous boss.
The trick is to blackmail him to hell with whatever you got....Illegal teachers on premise, threaten to give negative news to competitors, bombing/missing classes, showing up late, labor board notices.
Scare the hell out of them...make them KNOW your crazy enough to do it.
SUE? Pfft, they'll be too busy trying to salvage their business after your immediate departure and hell raising. Lawyers aren't cheap here and they don't have time to keep visiting court houses and police stations.
Screw humble....pound their ass into next week....they'll still try to bluff you, but as long as you got some decent blackmail material, they'll back down in the end.
Worse they can do is blacklist you at immigration(unlikely)....worse you can do is push the boss into bankruptcy court and/or heavy fines.
Lastly, plenty of hagwons are run shadily or break korean laws....they don't want police sniffing around not to mention it's bad for buisness to have police officers visiting a school. If it's a smaller city/town, word gets around so now everyone knows weird **** is going down with the cops showing up. |
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mj roach
Joined: 16 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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| going to the embassy = waste of time |
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