Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Michlerish]

I'm nearing the end of my contract and my director is refusing to pay for my return airfare. She tried to say the recruiter changed the contract without her knowledge, but when I pointed out that she signed that same contract, she said the wording is vague so she's not paying it.

When I was hired from my home country, both the recruiter and the school said that two-way airfare would be provided. I've called the recruiter and she told me to go to the labour board.

I called the labour board and they say they don't deal with airfare provisions, and suggested that I could file a lawsuit.

Now, I'm also not receiving pension (no mention of it at all in contract) or health insurance (which IS mentioned in my contract), but I didn't care throughout the year thinking it's a minor loss. The other two foreign teachers at my school were already in Korea when hired, and opted out of these two things. Now that I'm not getting airfare, I thought that by calling those offices about the lack of pension and health insurance they could get me some help. The Pension office just said "we have no record of you here, so we can't help you". I didn't bother calling the Health Insurance office suspecting they'd say the same.

Regarding airfare, this is what my contract says:
"3.5 Airfare

Employer shall provide flight ticket. In the event that Employee willfully leaves the Employer before completion of his/her contract, Employer is not responsible for the return airfare"

Can anyone please give me some advice on what to do next? Is my only option really to file a lawsuit? If I can get some money for lack of pension/health insurance, I'd take that instead of airfare money... but am I out of luck with that too?

[YTMND]

How were you paid each month? Does it show pension deductions? If you got paid your agreed salary amount without deductions, then you will have to back pay. This means you pay half and then try to collect on the other half.

Even if they did take your half out each month, my personal opinion is that if you take legal action you can make them look worse by showing this than trying to settle for less. List everything they haven't paid.

Remember, you also have your last month's pay to collect on. What are you overall plans? Will you stay in Korea or return home? If you return home, minimize your losses and move on. If you are staying in Korea, you can make regular return visits with subtle annoyances to see if that gets them to pay you so you leave them alone.

This is normal behavior in Korea.

[ttompatz]

Government workers are, for the most part, lazy sods.
If you call they will brush you off.
If you go to their offices (with a translator) and push the issue they will deal with you, file the appropriate paperwork and start your claims.

If you plan to leave at the end of your contract then write it off to bad luck and not vetting the employer before you started work. Issues like these are not usually one-off events and there would have been others before you who were also screwed.

If you plan to remain in Korea with another employer then finish your contract, collect what you can and THEN FILE your complaints with the various offices. While you are at it, become a nuisance at the tax office till then take her on for tax fraud.

[archaeologist5]

[CentralCali]

[archaeologist5]

Cali--stop embarrassing yourself. The word 'return' is not in the portion of the contract that was provided.

I also said nothing about finishing the contract or not.

[CentralCali]

OP: Airfare is a contractual, not statute, issue. If you do not intend to remain in Korea, you might as well write that off. If you do remain in Korea, filing in small claims court might be your best chance. Lawyers in Korea are expensive so it's probably not worth hiring one to run the case for you.

The Pension and NHI are both statute issues. It doesn't matter if the contract mentions them or not as they are required by law. As one poster above stated, you must still prove you made your payments (or at least that the employer took the payments out of your salary). You cannot "opt out" of them and must make back payments when the appropriate gov't offices catch wind of this. That is to your advantage because not only must you make the back payments, so must your employer.

For the Pension, you can initiate your case prior to leaving Korea and designate someone to appear on your behalf at all hearings related to it. The Pension office has a nifty form for that very purpose. Of course, the form is only in Korea, but you can get a Korean-speaking friend to assist you.

NHI, by the way, is not a small loss if you have an emergency. I had to spend almost a month (sadly, over a month-long vacation) in the hospital and was quite happy that I did not have to pay full fare as I would have had to do absent the NHI coverage. Pension works out to approximately an extra month's pay (unless you're a citizen of a country that does not have the reciprocal agreement with Korea to get total contributions returned to you when you leave Korea).

Thiessen: You are a liar. You actually quoted the very word and state it's not in there! The only embarrassment here is you. Even if the word weren't in the cotract, the rest of the wording in the contract indicates that is what is meant.

OP: Don't pay attention to Thiessen. He's a well-known and well-reviled suck-up to the most atrocious stunts pulled by dishonest employers in Korea.

[archaeologist5]

No I am not a liar. I was addressing the words that I had bolded. You will notice that the words I had put in bold do not contain the word 'return' it is vague and the director does not have to pay the return airfare.

There is NO promise to pay return airfare in that clause.

The mere mentioning of the word 'return' airfare in the part about unfulfilled contracts does not indicate any promise to pay return airfare at any time. It is clearly stating it won't do it in that case.

It is simply making a clarification on the responsibility of the employer. The OP's issue or problem lies solely in the words I put in bold. Those are vague and leaves the director a way out of paying for any return flight.

[archaeologist5]

[CentralCali]

Where have I given bad advice? I pointed out the government offices where person may avail themselves of assistance of the Korean government operating within Korean law. Provide a post of mine proving otherwise or do the right thing and apologize for your false witness.

Where have I told someone to do something wrong? I consistently tell people to do the honest thing. Provide a post of mine proving otherwise or do the right thing and apologize for your false witness.

Where have I told someone to treat Koreans badly, mocked or denigrated Koreans, or displayed a supposed bias and prejudice against Koreans? Provide a post of mine proving otherwise or do the right thing and apologize for your false witness.

Where have I lied? Provide a post of mine proving otherwise or do the right thing and apologize for your false witness.

I am not prejudiced and I do not hate anyone. I don't even hate you, although you are quite dishonest and very tiresome. I pity you, rather.

[archaeologist5]

[archaeologist5]

[EZE]

[CentralCali]

[Troglodyte]

Michlerish, are you planning on leaving Korea after this job or sticking around for a while (e.g. at another job)?