Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

Not to say late pay is right, but I fail to see it as theft.

Grotto, time for a shrill pill.

[some waygug-in]

2 months ago I would have agreed with you 100%.

I have named the school on this forum in the past. If anyone is interested, they can search my messages and find it.

Or they can PM me.

I don't want another teacher to go through this, but I don't want to see the guy lose his school either. He really should be calling this a part time job and then he wouldn't be so strapped for cash all the time.

Incidently, yes he did do this to all his previous teachers, but none of them blacklisted him.. sooooooooooo

that tells me that either they didn't give a rip about money or he eventually paid them.

If he doesn't pay me, then it is stealing, but as long as he tries to pay me,
it's just a large pain in the ass for me and bad management on his part.

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

I asked my Korean husband about what happens when a boss doesn't pay his employees in Korea. He said that if employees complain enough about him...he could land in jail if he doesn't cough up any cash.
My husband is thoroughly shocked with the nightmare I'm going through trying to get my last pay. He calls it theft and sees it justifiable to put my boss in prison. I don't hate my boss, but I rightly deserve all my money (c'mon, I put up with a split shift schedule and he thinks I'll just forget my money ) as well as the other Korean teachers. My boss told us that the money is gone and we won't get a dime....this is ripe for labor board hell for him and the teachers and I all signed statements saying we're taking legal action against him....he's going to be in hell and I hope a man like him never takes advantage of someone like this. Men like him should not be allowed to keep a business and my husband is making sure he blacklists him on the internet if we don't get our FULL pay. If there is no money to go around, then my guess is that our boss was involved in illegal transactions, laundering or what not. Why should I feel sorry for him? It's not part of Korean culture at all to accept a boss's non-payment. Any Korean employee would take legal action (if they cared about their money).
On my last day of the work, when I heard I wouldn't see my paycheck..my husband barged into the hagwon,.it took every ounce of my power to restrain my Korean husband from creating an ugly scene with my boss. My husband is actually more angry about my money than I am...he says this is absolutley ABNORMAL and HORRIBLE business practice in Korea....

[JongnoGuru]

I'm curious about the economics of these hagwons, and how high a hurdle 'meeting payroll' is for some of them. And, how the Korean staff (faculty and administrative) deal with it. From all I've heard and read, Korean employees will try to wait it out... just keep showing up, doing their work, and hoping their "loyalty" will be noticed & rewarded at some point. But then, Korean staff aren't necessarily paying their own rent, utilities, grocery bills, etc. and can, if all else fails, look for another job w/o visa hassles, international flights, bullocking with Immigration, etc.

Our operations were never huge even at their peak, so communication about these things is instant, and my bookkeeper & accountant know before I do when trouble is brewing on the horizon. So, while I don't know much about their finances and whatnot, I'd have to think a big part of the problem with hagwons is that a foreign teacher is utterly out of the loop and in the dark, relying solely on the competence, honesty and candour of their boss. (In a word, yikes!) And given their precarious (visa) situation here, they're the ones with the biggest, most genuine, real-world need to know what the devil's going on.

There have been months (4 in almost 10 years) when there wasn't enough in the till to make payroll. Typically, accounts-receivable were up the wazzoo, and there were large, one-time expenses the timing of which couldn't have been worse, but you can't control some things.

I remember the first time this happening was the month before the month of Chusok, and I'd promised everyone a Chusok bonus based on how well the company was doing. Money was going out, nothing coming in, we had some big clients give us sob stories of their own. (Damn, I felt so disrespected by them. ) So I had to renege on the bonus, and I also had to ask people to accept 70% of their regular salary (paid out of my own pocket, while I took a 'whopping' W500,000/month myself) till the crisis blew over. It finally did by the end of the year, and everyone recouped what they'd lost by... I think it was March of the following year. I even paid one girl who'd left us what she was due. My bookkeeper thought that was foolish of me, but I thought it was cold-blooded not to.

I've read stories here about hagwon owners doing disappearing acts. (*shudders to think where that leaves an ex-pat*) Blasphemy coming from a free-wheeling capitalist, but this industry sounds like it could use some old-school regulating.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[some waygug-in]

Amen to that.

[hari seldon]

[jajdude]

[Grotto]

interesting "a week is not a big deal"
to me it is....it is a violation of my contract. If my payday is stated as the 10'th of each month then I had better be paid on or before the 10'th of each month. It is up to a hogwan to set a payday on a day that minimizes the chance of late pay.

[jajdude]

I agree Grotto,

but this is Korea.

It aint right, but in my opinion Confucius was an idiot too.