Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ptaza]

so per the advice of a lot of kind souls who happened upon my posts, i have gone to the NPS, NHIC, NTS and labor board.

NPS, NHIC and NTS in both seoul and geoje.

Every single place said, after they fully understood what was going on, we're really sorry but there's nothing we can do. i said that, my boss has stolen the money for 'my pension and tax' from my paycheck and never handed it over to their respective agencies, . and they said, yes, we're sorry. but there's nothing we can do. you should really talk to your boss and ask nicely if they'll give you the money for your pension and pay your taxes

so the law means nothing? it's a mere suggestion?

we went to the nts, when they said that they couldn't find us in the system and that must mean that our bosses didnt register us, they seemed about as nonplussed as you could be! they said that if we could find the business number they would look a little more...but in a way that seemed like they'd prefer it if we never came back.

i'm seriously shocked. i think that there's a lot of people out there that think that if their unscrupulous bosses don't follow through with their apparently (non)legally binding contract, then they have some kind of a recourse that they could take. having taken those routes in two different places, i can say, with experience, that they seem to avail to, well you should ask your boss nicely to reimburse you.

so, i ask the question i've asked all day to the various agencies i've trod to:
"is there REALLY nothing we can do?!"


~ptaza



as a sidenote, i know that we are not indentured servants or slaves or anything like that, and we're planning on leaving asap anyway, but we just got wind that our bosses are planning on going to immigration to 'do something to' us. our first thought is to cancel our ARC cards, but is there something worse they could do? like flag us as child abusers or some such terrible thing and we won't be able to get through immi at ICN?

thanks! (again)! hope this reaches everyone in better spirits than i right now.

[YTMND]

[ptaza]

actually YTMND, i appreciate your assumptions, but i HAD checked up on this, months ago, and i had told her that i needed her to pay my pension, and i told her the following month as well. and the pension office told me that they were 'pushing' her to start paying my pension. and that there was nothing that they could REALLY do to make her pay for it. but it was an insightful comment YTMND. appreciate it.

[plchron]

I think you can still file formal complaints with each of those agencies about your boss. It is a drawn out process time wise. Another option that is always overlooked is: go to the courts. Sue the hell out of them. The people you spoke to are probably just lazy and have an overflowing pile of complaints because it is this time of year when people start getting ready to leave and realize that they have been screwed for the past 12 months.

A funny trick my friend pulled was to start a new email account and re-apply (through the same recruiter) to his same job under false pretenses because his boss dicked him out of money. He got the job, told them he was all ready to get on a plane, maybe he even sent in a fake picture. totally screwed them out of having a foreigner for at least 2 weeks. Get creative!

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=119477

[YTMND]

[ptaza]

plchron, that is hilarious! very creative. i wonder how he got around the copy of his bachelor's and getting an E2 visa thing...but still entertaining!

YTMND, my first boss transferred me to my second one. so we checked three months in to the first boss and they had paid (i had heard somewhere that you can only really start checking three to four months in for some reason). so then by the time i got my second one, i waited another three months or so and saw that it wasn't there. i should have taken a harder stance with her. i had thought that if i didnt show up for work, that they could fire me and i wouldn't get the money one way or the other.

but now that there's no hogwan to return to, the whole not going to into work thing really won't work.

i guess the whole point of my post was that, for those who think that these government entities will do something to protect your 'rights' per your contract (such as myself), that they won't. and hopefully more people will take up your advice and not go into work since strong arming them personally seems to be the only thing that you can do when 'please pay my pension and taxes' doesn't.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Who's Your Daddy?]

The business number will be on a certificate mounted to a wall above the front desk. It is required to be there.

But your experience with government agencies is mine too. They'd rather not know.

[plchron]

[Milwaukiedave]

The title reminded me of a line in the movie The In-laws where Micheal Douglas' character suggests traffic laws are just a suggestion.

[giwizzef]

Unfortunately, I encountered the same issue upon leaving Korea...Worse, my pay stubs had actually reflected that my school had been taking money out of my check for the pension fund. The money had just not been making it to the pension fund. As someone pointed out in a previous thread, I should have been doing a double follow up by contacting the pension office on a regular basis and making sure that my school was actually paying into the pension fund, but now all I can really do is chalk the experience up to being a naive first timer (which is what I was). Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot you can do. You can file a complaint with the Ministry of Labor which will bounce you back to your local pension office which will apologize profusely but not do much else. Considering all of the horror stories I've heard about hagwons, I consider the fact that the only part of my Korean experience that was truly f*#ed up was my pension somewhat of a blessing. It could have been a lot worse. Oh, yes, there were your standard office politics...but at least I got a semi regular pay check up until the time that I left...

[bbunce]

If you don't like the fact your hagwon is ripping you off, you've got to do something about it. Otherwise, just be happy with whatever they decide to give you each month. Of coure, you can still come here and whine about it on Dave's and that does actually help.

The only power teachers have is the threat of quitting. Threaten to walk unless they pay the pension/insurance within 3 days. This puts them into panic mode and most will succumb. However, if they call your bluff then it's a whole new game. If you can't quit, then just call in sick. You've got no insurance so you can't go to the doctor for that doctor's note. hehe Most contracts say you get 3 days sick. Use all your sick leave, every couple of days until you run out. Then after the next pay check, pull a runner. It's not really pulling a runner because you've given them notice. Like I've said before in other posts, the best defense is a good offense.