Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tofu_batman]

A potential job has the requirement that I pay back the recruiting fee (in addition to the play ticket) if I leave before the year is over. Does this seem a bit extreme? I'm weary about all the horror stories I hear of people getting cheated in the 11th month. Any words of wisdom?

"A. If the employee leaves not finishing 1 year contract because of the employee’s faults and personal reasons the employee has to refund the flight ticket which is provided for coming and the recruiting commission including the extra expenditure(visa processing fee) for inviting the employee.(About recruiting commission/this will cost about 1,000,000 Korean won(+ visa process fee /visa process refunding cost is different depending on the situation) will be deducted from the teacher’s salary for the next teacher first and the rest of the salary will be transferred the teacher’s bank account). the employee has the duty to work till the new substitute teacher starts as the employee’s replacement. (at least 2 months)"

[Zalithian]

Sounds stupid to me. Usually you aren't even responsible for the airplane ticket fee after 6 months. Extra fees on top of that = scam imo.

[ttompatz]

It's CRAP. Send it back and just say no to that kind of stupidity.

IF you are foolish enough to sign it then you most likely WILL pay for your foolishness (to the tune of about 6 million won) about 10 months from now.

.

[YTMND]

Morally, it would be nice to get a replacement teacher. After 6 months, you don't need to pay airfare. You NEVER have to pay recruiter fees. That means NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER EVER EVER.

[Troglodyte]

The legality of that is questionable at best. Legally, even if a court accepted that clause in the contract (and there's a good change they would dismiss it) the employer could not legally just take that money from your salary. Legally. Most likely they would do it anyway. The legal route in that case would be to request the money from you, and if you refused to pay it then they would have to take you to court over it. The fact that they tried to slip that little gem into the contract suggests that they're planning to try to use it. Or at least they'll try to convince you that it's completely above board and standard practice here.

If the contract had been worded so that you get a bonus for completing the contract, then that can be denied. Withholding money for penalty clauses is generally frowned upon by the courts and the ministry of employment and labor. It would be very hard for any employer to get such a clause enforced.

This is why it's better to get more money per month instead of a plane ticket home. A plane ticket home would cost (spread over a year) about 100k per month. So...
Situation A: You get 2.2 million Won /month plus a flight home after 12 months
Situation B: You get 2.2 million Won /month plus a bonus of 100k Won /month (paid with each salary) and no plane ticket.
In situation A, if you get fired or quit after 9 months then you get no flight. Totally legal.
In situation B, if you get fired or quit after 9 months then you'll at least have 900k Won more than the guy in situation A. In this situation, it would be illegal for the employer to withhold that 900k from your final paycheck.

[tofu_batman]

Thank you for your replies... I thought it sounded rather suspicious. I feel like these contracts are always trying to cheat us at the end. : /

I told my recruiter that if that part of the contract couldn't be removed that I would be unable to accept the job.

[ThingsComeAround]