Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mrdsmith]

Hi, everyone. I believe my hagwon boss is trying to make me quit. He fired me verbally, then said it was up to him whether or not I can leave or if I have to stay working there, so I'm not sure what my options are. Below is the labor board complaint I filed the other day.

On Tuesday, May 21st, 2013, at approximately 1120, I attended a foreign teacher staff meeting at [hagwon] with my principal/director, Mr. [REDACTED] (English name � John), [REDACTED] (Head foreign teacher), [REDACTED] (co-worker) and [REDACTED] [Last name unknown] (co-worker.

One of the first orders of business was a correction. John said that one of our scheduled vacation days was a misprint in our calendar because taking that day off would have interrupted the school session schedule.
Our head teacher, [REDACTED], asked when the day would be rescheduled. John became very frustrated with [REDACTED], and said, �What do you mean?� [REDACTED] mentioned that we are given a certain number of scheduled vacation days a year, and that if the day was removed, we would be short a vacation day unless it was made up later in the year. John only became more frustrated with him and avoided a direct answer on the matter.

John even went so far as to question [REDACTED] count of the vacation days, saying, �Ten. Ten, really! Ok, let�s count then!� He then produced a calendar and began counting them off aloud.

Not wanting to argue about the matter, [REDACTED] asked John if there were other matters to discuss, and the topic turned to a proposed field trip to Sanjik stadium in Busan to see the Lotte Giants play. The event was scheduled to take place over a two-day period, the weekend of June 15th and 16th.

In my contract, it states that work on Saturdays will be paid as overtime. Since this was a mandatory school event on a weekend, I wanted to make sure I understood how compensation worked work the trip. I asked John if it would be paid as a normal school day or overtime because it took place on a Saturday.

When I asked John which the trip would count as, he again became frustrated and said it would be unpaid. I was confused by this, and said that I thought the teachers should be compensated for taking a group of young children all the way into Busan and babysitting them at a stadium. He became so enraged that he ended the meeting abruptly and called me into his office.

As soon as the door was closed he said, �So, Adam, you�re fired. I then sat with him for about half an hour or more while he made me read passages from my contract aloud, then grunted and gestured as if it proved his point. He said that because he was angry, he couldn't focus and find the exact line where it said I wouldn't be paid. I tried pleading my case, and explained that I am still an asset to [HAGWON], but to no avail.
I then taught the rest of my classes for the day and left the school without speaking to John again.

[REDACTED], the head teacher, was demoted in retaliation later that day for asking about the vacation day. At present, there is no head foreign teacher.

On Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013, at approximately 0130, I was sitting in my bedroom having a Skype conversation with my teaching recruiter, [REDACTED], when I noticed that my employer, Mr. [REDACTED] (English name � John), had made several calls to me on Skype and was attempting to contact me. I did not answer the call as I was already on the phone with my recruiter and, that afternoon, John had fired me, and I was concerned with his motives for calling me so late.

John then entered my apartment without permission, using my door code to unlock the door. He told me that he had received a message from me on Skype saying that I was locked out.

There were two occasions when I was locked out of my apartment. Once on Monday, May 5th, 2013 (the occasion that I was later given a warning letter for), and again on Thursday, May 9th, 2013. On the second occasion, I called John via Skype and left a message telling him about the situation. I was later able to re-enter my apartment. The next day, John asked me about it and we talked about it. Also, the Skype program, by default, shows the date and time of the conversations and messages. Therefore,

1. John claiming that he saw the call from me and thought I was in trouble must be false because we had already discussed the call and the event surrounding it weeks ago.
2. The call and message had a time and date from weeks ago printed clearly next to the message.
3. John and I had corresponded on Skype after that incident, so that message would not even have been the first thing he saw when opening up the program.

I am not entirely sure what the real reason is that he entered my apartment without permission, but it made me very uncomfortable, even more so because I do not know how he got my passcode. He did not know it when I moved in. I had to ask the previous residents for it.
After telling him that I was fine and that I had not contacted him, he left.

On Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013, at approximately 2025, my principal/director, Mr. [REDACTED](English name � John) said he wanted to talk. I waited for 40min at my desk before we ended up speaking, and I didn�t leave until 2245.

He started by telling me that I was not fired. I asked him then and there if he thought it would be better if I went to a different school. I explained that because of all that had happened in such a short span of tine this may not be the best pairing for either of us. He said it was his decision whether or not I would stay at [REDACTED] or get a job somewhere else.

He made a point of telling me that if I left and started a new job before he said I could, he would not give me a release letter, which means I would have to go back to America and get a new visa. He also said he would blacklist me and flag me with immigration. He pointed out that, at that point, it would be impossible for me to get hired in Korea.

John typed up a brief statement saying that I would work at [REDACTED] until they found a replacement and asked me to sign it. I caught a glance at his screen and saw it was a two-page document, but he only printed one page. When I asked what the other page was, he said it was nothing, and that what he printed was all that needed to be signed.

During my first week, I was issued a warning letter, which is on par with a write-up in the US. It was issued to me because he felt I blamed him for being locked out of my apartment on one occasion and also for having an unruly kindergarten class on a day he sat in. He told me, after some prodding, that the other document was the warning letter, which, by the way, was never actually issued to me. I was told it existed, but was never given a copy.

After asking several times, he allowed me to read it, and I asked him to print out a copy for my records, along with a copy of the paper I was signing.

He became very concerned and asked why I wanted a copy. I explained that it is common practice in the US to give someone a copy of documents that pertain to them. He said he thought I would try to use it against him somehow or in the courts (his words, mind you), and said he wouldn�t give me copies of either.

After a few rounds of saying the same things over and over, and him making me say time after time that I wasn�t trying to use it against him, he said he wanted to add more to it.

Now, the warning letter would only be about the initial incident, and would not be something that he could add to or subtract from, it would just exist as it is. That said, he had already added in that I did not have a full day of lesson plans prepared THAT DAY. And I didn�t � because he told me to do two-weeks� worth, and the two weeks were up.

He also said that he wanted to add another incident that happened during my orientation, which is to say, when I first came to Korea and hadn�t even started training yet. While I was introducing myself to the kids in the gym, one of the boys slapped another boy a couple times. John was there, and so was one of the kindergarten specialists, but none of us caught it. The boy�s mom found out, and has decided to pull him and his sister out of [REDACTED].

So, to be clear, John wanted to shift the blame to me, even though he was there and so was one of the two specialists hired specifically for the kindergarteners, which took place on a day when I wasn�t even working at the school officially yet.

Had I signed the document, he could have easily attached the warning letter and said the signature applied to both, since the second page read more like an amendment than a second, stand-alone document. His refusal to even give me a copy of what I was signing, or to give me a copy of a document that had a direct relation to me and my work at [REDACTED], really got to me. Red flags were everywhere.

After I realized we were at a stalemate, I said, �John, I have to go home. It�s after 10:30, I have to have dinner, write my lesson plans, and sleep. Add whatever you want to it, and we can go over it tomorrow.�
I then left [REDACTED] for the evening.

Most recently, I informed John that I filed a complaint with the labor board, and her fired me again for filing a complaint and threatened to cancel my visa and evict me. I have that conversation recorded.

What do I do? I'm talking with my recruiter and one of her co-workers, and the tentative plan is to shop me around to schools they're familiar with (this was their first time working with John) and switch over my visa without a release letter since I have a second set of documents.

What do you think?

[ewlandon]

I will need you to post the recorded conversation in order to understand the situation better.

[nicwr2002]

Sounds like a lot of verbal abuse to me and threatening. If you have any of that recorded I would hope you can use that to change jobs with the labor boards permission. I would record every session you have with this "John" guy. I would also change my passcode for my apartment too. I wouldn't want him to go into my apartment while I'm not there and snoop around. I would also contact the pension office and health insurance offices to make sure he is paying into that.

[mrdsmith]

Do you know their phone numbers?

[CentralCali]

[ewlandon]

[ttompatz]

If I may be so bold as to chime in.
No LOR = NO work in Korea till your contract expires.
Current policy of the immigration department is to NOT permit a transfer, change of status to D10 or issuance of a new visa confirmation number if the previous contract was not completed UNLESS a LOR was issued by the employer.

Your "labor complaint" is virtually meaningless. NOTHING that you wrote (admittedly I might have missed something but I doubt it) contradicted Korean labor law.

You might actually want to read the labor standards acts:
labor standards: www.moel.go.kr/english/download_eng.jsp?type=&file=(31)LABORSTANDARDSACT_2012.pdf
other acts: http://www.moel.go.kr/english/topic/laborlaw.jsp?tab=Standards

And as a closing shot across your bows.... if you have been there for less than 6 calendar months you are, under labor law, considered to be a "probationary employee" and can be terminated for managerial reasons (read: no reason) without notice.

Pick a new country and try again. Good time to be in Thailand, there are always jobs in China and you can usually find buxiban work in Taiwan if you qualify for an E2 in Korea.

.

[PatrickGHBusan]

As usual, ttom is dead on.

OP, get an LOR if you can.

Cali, good post on many points but I will disageree with one thing: a native speaker has not been "trained all his or her life to teach his or her language". TEACHING a language and being a native speaker of that language are very different things....

[CentralCali]

Agreed, Patrick. The OP's spent his entire life already learning how to speak his native language. Technically, that's what he was hired on to do: speak his native language.

The unpaid/half-pay orientation/training scam is just that, a scam.

[YTMND]

[young_clinton]

**************

[maximmm]

[sirius black]

OP, I'm not saying that you're not right for challenging thngs. Sometimes you pick your battles. I think the reason why your boss is trying to get rid of you is because he thought you would be trouble.
He didn't want you to challenge the vacation or the Saturday. One less vacation and a Saturday for some is a battle they would not fight if this is the result for others its a matter of principle and they fight it.
Know your enemy and pick your battles. Again, not saying to put up with crap.

I had a great first experience overall. My vacaation was shorter than the contract but I didn't fuss about it. When it got close to renewal and I was essential to his hogwon I had a heart to heart talk about the past year and things that had to happen for me to stay another year. One of which was both of my 5 days vacation for my whole contractual 10 days being from a Monday to Friday so I essentially had 10 days with the weekends. Had I fought him early on the vacation days my first year, he would have done the same as your boss. I put up some things and didn't with others. He was a great boss but also wanted me to teach at his church on a Sunday but I didn't. He knew it was over the line and I was 'busy' on Sundays. There was a flu epidemic and he didn't want me to leave the country. Instead of arguing, I said okay and 'forgot' my phone while vacationing in 'Jeju'. I was in Thailand the whoe time. He knew probably but I didn't argue. He had a temper. Overall it was great. There these incidents which to some are major and some may think I gave in or gave up too much but I looked him and the situation and picked my battles.

Good luck.

[PatrickGHBusan]