Korean Job Discussion Forums

[plchron]

Am i required to stay at school for my lunch break? Standard epik contract. nothing in there about lunch time. I am required to work a straight 8 hours a day though. So if i leave for an hour lunch does that effect my work hours or does the labor law say that lunch hour counts as a work hour?

[ttompatz]

[koreatimes]

The title makes it sound like you are worried about getting food outside of school. The post makes it sound like you are worried about your scheduled hours.

Which is it? If lunch, that is between you and the school, and I would personally leave if they didn't allow me to eat lunch however I wanted during my lunch break. If your question has to do more with scheduling, find out how many classes you have to teach, and those are the classes you have to teach. If you eat in the cafeteria or elsewhere, you still have to teach those classes. You don't get to teach 5 less.

[schwa]

Your lunch break counts as part of your 8-hour workday. Most schools are relaxed about teachers using that time to eat out or run errands at their own discretion.

However, individual school policies can vary. A few might insist that teachers must first get permission from the vice principal or head teacher to leave. A rarer few will require actually signing out every time you go off the premises, even to cross the street to a convenience store. Some principals are control freaks that way (they'll cite liability issues). If its any consolation, such rules will apply equally to your Korean colleagues.

[jrwhite82]

Your lunch hour counts as part of your 8 hour work day as described in your contract. So if you were to leave for lunch you would then be expected to stay until 5:40 or 6:00pm. You will find that if you develop a good relationship with your coworkers and admin staff that they will usually cut you some slack if you need to run to the bank or doctor.

If you don't like the lunch, brown bag it. Most schools have website that post the menu for the week or month. Ask your CT to print it out. If you don't want to inconvenience her translating it and can't do it yourself, ask one of your more fluent students.

Also, don't leave without permission. Many teachers will get docked vacation time for leaving during school hours.

[Ribena]

[Wildbore]

[koreatimes]

[jamesd]

A friend of mine have befriended a labor board inspector in our town. He showed him his PS labor contract.

He didn't get into the specifics, but he found numerous illegal contract clause which violates the labor law.

One of his biggest concern was the pre-determined penalty clauses which is illegal according to the labor law. This means that employers cannot take away any money or benefits already taken by the employee for any reason (including breaking the contract early for whatever the reason).

[jrwhite82]

It's long been known that the 900,000W "runner" deposit is technically against labor law. Good luck fighting it though.

[jamesd]

[Clockout]

[jrwhite82]

[Skipperoo]

[TheUrbanMyth]