Korean Job Discussion Forums

azjen · Joined: 29 May 2004 Location: Youngtong, Suwon

Just looking over my contract again and I've noticed that there is no mention of intensive in the document. It simply states that working hours are from 2:00 PM to 9:30 PM M-F and is only 30 hours per week. I am currently working 9:00 AM - 7:30 PM MWF and 9:00 AM to 4:40 PM TTh. The manager of the school came in this afternoon asking us to put in an extra long day next week since some of the kids are going back to school. I suggested that since we are already working over our contract specs we should recieve monetary compensation for working more hours. The manager said they would look things over and see if we are due compensation. She also reminded me that we are only paid for time that we are in class. Nevermind that any break I have is spent grading papers or preparing lessons due to a lack of materials in classes.

Is this normal procedure? Does anyone have a clause in their contract about intensive?

peppermint · Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:08 am Post subject:

Countdown to Gord. . . 5...4...3...2...1...

McNasty · Joined: 04 Jul 2003

Welcome to the wonderful world of the mysterious hogwan contract.

Contracts always seem to be up for interpretation on your part and on the owners part.

I hope it works out for you.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

stick to your contract.

They wrote the contract, signed it and they should abide by it. If they change the hours of the contract and you are working outside of the contract hours you should be able to get the labour board to enforce it for you.

If they say that you are only paid for the time in class, then remind them that there will be no marking, staff meetings, preparation outside of the classroom.

I had a similar problem with the last school I was at, my 2-8 schedule got turned into a 2-9:45 schedule. Unlike you I just had the general 30 hours a week in the contract and not specified times like you have(2-9:30).

Stand up for yourself nobody else will.

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

azjen · Joined: 29 May 2004 Location: Youngtong, Suwon

Turns out that there is also a school associated with ours in Seoul. The three teachers there have all agreed to work the intensive, no problems even though we all have the same contract. The same is to be said about the head teacher at my school. No one seemed to be bothered by the fact that we are all here for 10+ hours a day MWF and that we are here our normal hours on TTh.

It just bothers me that even though the intensive is an expected requirement without compensation, that they would even have the gall to ask for us to work an additional long day to an already extended work week.

I was mostly curious if most people had intensive written into their contracts or if its an evil most people get out of.

peppermint · Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2004 9:11 pm Post subject:

Can you explain what you mean by intensives. If you're teaching more than 30 hrs a week, yes you should get overtime. It sounds like you're teaching the same # of hours, just more spread out, wchich sucks, but whaddaya do.

azjen · Joined: 29 May 2004 Location: Youngtong, Suwon

by intensives I mean, I go to work much earlier than I used to (this I really don't mind). Yes I do work more hours. About 10 more hours a week. My day is much more spread out and I am expected here all day.

When I arrived it was explained to me that all schools do intensives for the month that the 'normal' schools are out. Its a time that the hagwons really pull in the money. So, instead of getting the students twice a week, I now get them three times a week. Also, I gain 2 classes of students I have never met before with no books to teach a lesson out of. The hardest bit is that they are beginning level students. I also have 1 new class of students that signed on at the beginning of this month.

I agree I should get overtime, I just don't know how to ask for it. Maybe I'll just plainly ask for it and rationalize with the fact that they are paying me the same amount as before but I now am here all day long.

peppermint · Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 2:17 am Post subject:

Ask them for extra pay for teaching hours only. An overtime rate was specified in your contract, right? Bringing up crap like how many hours you spend at school is irrelvant, and makes you look greedy. By the way- winter vacation is more like two months, so it's better ot get this sorted now.

hippie · Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Location: Bucheon (pending)

Keep a log of all of the hours that you taught. Like peppermint said, they don't consider grading and prep time to be class hours. If there is a discrepancy between the number of hours for the week that you teach and the number that your boss calculates, have your boss explain how she arrived at her total.

Some schools use the 30 hours a week as an estimate and only pay overtime if you exceed than 120 hours a month. In such cases, you get the short end of the deal whenever you have a lot of holidays in a month, even if you teach more than 30 hours a week.

If she doesn't pay your overtime, you can always use this as leverage in the future.

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea