Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alwynjo]

For those of you who saw my other post about the ECC in Changwon (and for those who didnt) here is the contract they sent me.

If you see anything dodgy - let me know....thanks!

ECC Changwon

FIRST YEAR EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT FOR ECC INSTRUCTOR


This EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT has been made this ________, 2005 by and between YBM Si-sa-ECC English Language Institute; having its office at 3F, Changjin Bld., 11-2 Sapa-dong, Changwon-si 641-550 (hereinafter referred to as "employer"); and __________, a citizen of ________ whose address is________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________(hereinafter referred to as "employee").

1.0 Employer and employee agree to the following:

Employee accepts employment from employer to teach the English language under the terms and conditions set forth here in this agreement for a period of twelve full and consecutive teaching sessions. Employment commences from the first day of orientation (April 27, 2005) and finishes on the last teaching day of the last teaching session covered under this agreement.

2.0 Duties

2.1 During the term of this agreement, the employee is required to prepare for, teach, and carry out all required administrative duties connected with classes assigned by the employer. The minimum teaching requirement is ninety-five (142-forty minute classes) actual teaching hours per session. Monday through Saturday are teaching days except for scheduled public holidays and vacation days.
2.2 Total teaching hours in excess of the minimum requirement is calculated each session as overtime payment.
2.3 Payment made for assigned teaching hours is inclusive of payment for preparation and administrative duties connected with those assigned classes, which includes; preparing evaluations, attending meetings and workshops scheduled by employer.
2.4 At all times during the term of this agreement, employee will directly adhere to and obey all the rules and regulations that have been, or may hereafter be established, by employer for the conduct of employee or generally for the conduct of instructors at the place of employment.

3.0 Compensation and Other Treatment of Employee

3.1 Salary: The monthly salary will be 1,800,000 Won with 2 payments made on the last day of the last teaching session as part of the severance pay. No part of the thirteenth payment will be paid unless the employee completes the full (12 session) one-year contract. Overtime payment is made at the rate of 24,300 Won per actual teaching hour. Teaching salary will commence from the first day of teaching. When an employee is absent from scheduled teaching duties salary will be deducted accordingly. Korean income taxes and Korean National Pension Scheme deductions will be withheld. Salary payments will be made on or before the eighth day of the month following the teaching session during which the employment services were provided.
3.1a National Pension Tax Refund: Exclusive to employees holding passports from USA and Canada. Under current Korean tax regulations full time contract employees from these countries are entitled to receive a full refund plus employer co-contribution. The refund will consist of employees pension tax deducted over the course of their employment plus an equal amount contributed by employer minus any taxes. This is applicable only when an employee finishes their employment with employer and will not continue employment in Korea.
3.2 Orientation and Training: Shortly after arrival in Korea, employee will be required to undertake orientation and training before commencing teaching. The period of training and orientation will usually be two to four days. Employee will receive payment of 30,000 Won per each day of training and orientation.
3.3 Transportation: Employer will provide for employee an economy class ticket for passage to Korea from an international airport mutually agreed to by employer and employee (henceforth referred to as point of departure). On completion of the full contract period, employer will provide for the employee an economy class ticket for passage from Korea to point of departure. The return air ticket will be provided at the time of termination of employment. In the event that the employee continues employment under a subsequent employment agreement with employer, the return air ticket will be provided at the time of completion of the subsequent contract period(s). Air tickets provided cannot be exchanged for cash equivalents or transferred to persons other than the employee. Employer does not agree to, and is not liable for, compensation to employee, whether in cash or otherwise, for air tickets not used by employees.
3.4 Relocation Allowance: Employer will pay employee, upon arrival in Korea, 200,000 Won to help defray the costs of relocating. Any contracts less than 1 year will be prorated.
3.5 Visa application fee subsidy: Employer agrees to pay employee, upon arrival in Korea, 50,000 Won to help defray the visa application fees. Any contracts less than one year will be prorated.
3.6 Sick Days/Attendance Bonus: Employee is entitled to 3 paid sick days. Should employee not use these sick days, employer will pay an attendance bonus of 250,000 Won upon the completion of one-year contract or unused sick days will be credited at 50,000 won per day unused. Any contracts less than 1 year but more than 6 months will receive one sick day and a bonus of 125,000 won for no absences.
3.7 Holidays and Vacation: Employee will be entitled to observe all regular annually scheduled public holidays and receive vacation days during the contract term according to a yearly schedule provided by employer before the commencement of the year to which the schedule refers. There are ten (10) vacation days in each calendar year (January - December)
3.8 Medical Insurance: Employee will be covered by medical benefits under the Korean Medical Insurance Union, a Government Health Organization. The cost of this coverage will be borne half by employer and half by employee. Employee��s share of this coverage will be deducted from employee's salary, monthly.
3.9 Accident Compensation: In the event that employee sustains injuries from an accident or mishap which occurs outside the course of normal work duties; employee understands and agrees that employer will have no responsibility for, nor obligation to pay, medical and hospital costs which are in excess of those covered by medical insurance.

4.0 Housing

4.1 Employer will select and provide semi-furnished private bedroom for employee. Employee will share a kitchen and bathroom. Furnishings provided by employer for common use by employees sharing accommodation include: A kitchen table and chairs, two-burner gas hotplate, a refrigerator, a telephone, a television, and a washing machine. Furnishings provided to each employee include: a bed, a dresser, and a fan. Employee will have to supply his or her own pillow, pillowcase and bed sheets.
4.2 Employee(s) is responsible for all maintenance, utility and telephone charges for accommodation provided by employer. In the case that an employee is the sole occupant of a double occupancy accommodation, provided by employer, he/she will be responsible for the above mentioned expenses.
4.3 Employee agrees to a deduction of 200,000 Won per month from the first three months of employment totaling 600,000 Won as housing management deposit. This deposit is to cover any unpaid monthly service, utility, and telephone charges at the completion of this contract and/or resignation or dismissal of the employee before the termination of this contract. Employer agrees that payment of remaining amounts of the deposit will be made to employee within ten days after all outstanding monthly service, utility, and telephone charges have been paid.

5.0 Dismissals or Voluntary Resignation

5.1 Employer will have the right to dismiss employee for unwillingness or inability to meet conditions of employment as set out under this agreement, for conduct seriously jeopardizing any student or staff person, or for criminal activity.
5.2 In the event that the employee is dismissed, or in the event that the employee voluntarily resigns prior to the termination of the term of this agreement, employer will pay salary due to date of termination. Employer will not pay the cost of return transportation to point of departure for employee. Further, employer will be entitled to withhold an amount less than or equivalent to, but not exceeding, the cost of airfare provided for travel to Korea and other benefits provided to employee.

6.0 Covenants

6.1 Employee hereby agrees, covenants, and undertakes that he/she will not undertake any teaching duties or employment with any persons or organizations other than the employer. To undertake such employment is a breach of Korean Immigration law and can have serious consequences.
6.2 The employee understands and accepts that the rights to use, sale, distribution, or publication of all original material produced by the employee during the course of employee's employment, and for which the employee is compensated as either regular pay, as overtime, or in an agreed-upon lump sum, remain the sole property of employer.

7.0 Jurisdiction

7.1 This agreement will be interpreted according to the internal (domestic) laws of the Republic of Korea. A competent court in the Republic of Korea will have jurisdiction in regard to any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, this agreement.

7.2 Employer and employee have executed this agreement on the date indicated below. Intending to be legally bound to, and in witness of, employer and employee have appended their signatures

[Squid]

ECC contracts have been picked apart a hundred times on this board... do a search!!

Besides, the usual rats in their contracts include:

Deposit for housing. 600 bucks taken 200 each, first three paychecks.

"10 days vacation". These are public holidays and you'll work extra the month they fall to make up the hours you "missed".

Extra activities. These are all unpaid.



Crappy job, crappy chain, crappy pay.

[bosintang]

I worked for ECC my first year, and that's a template contract. Squid is right: terrible chain, terrible contract, terrible pay. I'm sure ECC contracts have been picked apart on this board before, so try and do a search.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't consider working for this particular ECC. Not everything about ECC is terrible -- pay is generally stable, they hire people out-of-country with no experience. However if you do decide to go with ECC, I highly reccomend you get references from people who already work there and even preferrably who used to work there. Take a large dose of irony-medicine before coming over.

[PEIGUY]

I agree.. they don't set your hours in the contract.. get actual working hours.. I was on a 95 hour contract and had my classes spread out from 10am-8:30 at night... not fun..

[Zyzyfer]

ECC is always a mixed bag. Not a bad place to work if you're doing your first year, and some of the things that I griped about at the time would at this stage have very little impact on me, in perspective. Also, many ECCs are franchises and, though they have a standard contract, they also have their own little rules.

Get a gauge on your hours. I had a sweet block, from 3-9, but there were a few months where I was literally working the whole block, which equates to 8 classes. Some of the teachers got stuck with kindy in the mornings and were at school from like 9 or 10 am until 5 or 6 pm more often than not. They of course had breaks in between, but anytime there was an emergency they were not very nice about spotting for a class or something at night.

Agreed on getting in touch with someone already there. Just try to get a general feeling of the place. Does the staff seem pretty outgoing, friendly, willing to be helpful with the new person? Do they not even bother replying?

Otherwise, in hindsight, my old ECC seemed like a hellhole while I was there, but I occasionally find myself wishing I had a job where everything was outlined and clear, no beating around the bush stuff.

[Squid]

ok, I'll admit, ECC are more organized than my current employer... but then so's a monkeys ass.

They generally pay on the dot... which is good, but if you like clearing 1.2 or 1.3 after your rent and utilities and deposits and what the hell else is deducted then you're outta your tiny gourd.

Babysitting kindy classes on a split shift basis aint a barrel of laughs either. But there are worse places to work

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[teachingld2004]

Depends on the ECC. I just finished 2 years at an ECC in Gangneung.
Great boss, great supervisor. Great apartment, good school.

I left because I needede a change. I wanted to be back in the Seoul area.

I never worked Saturdays. My school was not open Saturdays.

Best thing you can do is talk to a teacher at that school.

I would not work at a job where I might have to work 6 days a week.

[Zyzyfer]

[trevorcollins]

Haha...they used to have a comments section on their own website, and something like 80% of the comments were pissy teachers saying "Don't work for these guys, they're crooks." They eventually killed that part of the site.

[mishlert]

If this contract were offered to me I would get to 3.1 and know that from there it would only get worse.
Up to that point (3.1) it states Monday to Saturday for 1.8 million Forget It!! I can't believe people actually sign contracts like these and think that they are good. I'm sure of them will defend themselves on this board with things that we've all heard before, but it's because of them that hogwon owenrs think that they can, and do get away with offering crappy hours, pay, housing, etc. Of course, the hogwon owners and the teachers who sign these contracts get what they pay/ ask for.
It's simple:

-20 hours a week.
-Monday- Friday.
-2 weeks Summer and 2 weeks Winter vacation.
-3 million a month.
-Class size of 10 (max).
-1 bedroom apartment for 1 teacher. 2 bedroom apartment for 2 teachers; 14-16 pyong for the former and 20 -22 pyong for the latter.
- Plus the usual other things like pension, medical, etc.

With an offer like that the owner can hire who he/ she wants and be able to charge more because of it, and the teacher will be happy which will show in the work.
It comes back to that old saying that I used before, ' You get what you pay for.'