Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stumptown]

This is one of those "recruiter"/"contracting" agencies that place teachers in public schools. This company was a pack of rampant liars from the get go. They promised placement in housing close to the schools, but everyone was 30 mins-1 hour away.
They forced everyone to open an account with Finebank, only to forge employ signatures on a second application for a second account. This account was used for the public school to pay to, then the employ pay was extracted and place in the real account.
They illegally have teachers work at other schools with the assumption that it's ok because they are being paid through the company, not the school. A BIG lie. Very illegal.
Save yourself the headache and stay away from this company. You can find more reputable companies and safer ways to get a public school job.

[Erik the Viking]

A year ago this company called KM Education started up.

Firslty it put all of it's teachers in tiny little one rooms that were horrible. Some of them were mouldy and smelled, some had no bathroom sinks and most teachers had to travel for 1 hour or 45 minutes to get to work.

Then it took us 3 months just to convince the boss to give us TVs.

It took two to four months to get the visas organized so many of us were working illegally even though we were begging for visas.

The company got us to start new accounts with Finebank and then secretly used this paperwork to open another account in our names. This account was used to hide the fact that the schools were paying money to the company because it is illegal for a public school to sign a contract with a company.

KM then made name stamps in all of its teacher's names so they could forge our signatures.

The immigration investigated some of the schools. Apparently it is also illegal to have two contracts. (One with the school, one with the company).

Many of the teachers who left got ripped off on their last pay and plane ticket but by then they just wanted to go home and forget about KM.

This year they have changed their name because they were being investigated by the tax department.

Avoid this company if you can. They will try to convince you that they are 100% legal now but they are not.

Every month there is a problem with the pay. They say it is a mistake but it is always in their favor. I think they always test what they can get away with just in case you don't ask questions or demand all of your money.

If you already work for them, demand payslips. They won't give them to you unless you do. Check each pay to make sure your being paid the right amount and expect to be ripped off with your final pay.

One final thing: they treat their Korean teachers even worse than their foreign teachers. I felt really sorry for my co-worker. She did her best but the company always pushed her to do more overtime and make more money for them.

[Erik the Viking]

Illegal Companies in Public Schools

There is a growing industry in Korea teaching English in public elementary schools. There is a lot of money to be made in this industry and that means that large companies take advantage of this. There is nothing wrong with people making money through legitimate business but many of these companies engage in illegal activities. This article will outline how companies are taking advantage of Korean parents who want a good education for their children and their schools.
The English teaching business is very lucrative. That is why there are many language institutes and Hagwans starting up. Often they engage in some form of suspicious activity whether it is not honoring their contracts, not paying their teachers properly, poor working conditions or using teachers without visas. This seems to be a common occurrence in the Hagwan industry but the illegal activity in public schools goes way beyond this.
Some Hagwans are legitimate. Some of them do a fair deal by their teachers and students. Unfortunately legitimate Hagwans are few and far between. The Korean government regulates them to make sure they do not engage in illegal activity and so for the most part they are kept in line.
The companies working in public schools are entirely different. They are set up illegally from the beginning. For example it is common for the teachers to have contracts with the schools and the company that hires them. They also set up false bank accounts in the teacher��s name using specially made name stamps or do-jeong to forge the teacher��s signature. This is called fraud or identity theft and is highly illegal.
The schools and teachers are the victims of this crime. Often the teachers think they have a great job that is legitimate. The schools want a good English program so that their students can have a good education. Parents are happy because they can improve their children��s English skills. The government recognizes this and so it turns a blind eye to some of the illegal activity. The government recognizes that there is a need for English education in schools but if it legalizes this form of education it will lose control of it. So the government allows small programs to operate in the public schools.
Unscrupulous companies take advantage of the generosity of the government to make a lot of money. They offer inferior programs because English teachers do not have access to tape recorders, photocopiers, teacher��s manuals or sometimes even computers.
The schools try to keep the English program small by setting student and class quotas but this is easily gotten around. Sometimes there is up to three sets of books and student lists kept by the English program. One set of books is for the government, one for the school, and one for the company.
Sometimes teachers can be working in their schools for up to three months before they get a visa. This is not the teacher��s fault. Most teachers want to work legally but the companies they work for are slow to organize the visas for them.
There are numerous government agencies with the job of finding these illegal companies but their job is difficult. It doesn��t help that it is usually announced months before hand that there will be a crack down on a particular industry. This gives the criminals involved in that industry time to hide their activities and organize false records.
Immigration can get involved but they are more interested in finding illegal foreigners than stopping the companies that hire them. In fact it is well known that immigration can be used by bad companies to punish disobedient foreign workers.
The tax department also keeps watch on some things but as mentioned before, false sets of books are kept to hide the real amount of money and students. The organization with the best reputation is the Labor Board because they have strict penalties if their staff take bribes and are very thorough.
The Korean government, parents, public schools and their teachers are the victims of these terrible crimes of fraud, identity theft and tax evasion. These crimes further compound themselves in a web of lies and deceit when the schools are investigated.
The Korean government should investigate these companies more thoroughly specifically looking for false bank accounts in foreigner��s names where larger sums of money are transferred in and out in the same day. They should interview the teachers in private rooms so that they feel more comfortable and able to tell the truth without the school or their company co-workers being involved.
They should also do head counts of students rather than relying on the false records kept by the company. They should audit the companies properly to make sure they are paying the right tax. Finally they should legalize and regulate the industry properly rather than allowing this organized crime to continue.

[stumptown]

Does that pretentious *beep* Mr Kim still work there? I hope that company goes down, real f'ing soon. Good to see someone else here backing me up on this fraud of a company. I hope you didn't get too screwed over, bro.

[dulouz]

I worked for a competitor last year. It was largely a bad experience but there were a few times when it was just me and the school and that was fine.

There is one failing I accuse the treachers of. The schools do hire the teachers and the teachers can apply directly to the school. The teachers get all bent since this is beyond the routine of see-ad send-resume head in a box life that we live. You can set up your own company so to speak and keep the 3.8 million they pay each month. If I were out of contract, I'd do it. Just get a list of school names of where you like to work and send them a cover letter, resume, conditions and photo. The schools
can hire you directly. The hours are often thin like 20 per week, the staff is often good and the pay goes from to average - great.

The problems come from the businesses and rarely from the school.

[stumptown]

Good advice. However, at a lot of schools even the Korean "English" teacher can't maintain a conversation. So, how do you approach that situation?

[dulouz]

In the case of limited communication, its up to you then college boy. Figure it out. Is is a real problem or just an annoyance? Figure it out. Thats why you get the big bucks.

[Erik the Viking]

It is good to see that this discussion has attracted other contributers.

In answer to some of the questions:

I heard that Min left, possibly on holiday and will study. Personally I don't want to say anything bad about him because I think the mani problem has always been the company.

I went to the Ministry of Labor to complain about the company. No one wanted to speak English and I was transfered around and given a heap of phone numbers. Finally I spoke to someone with no English so I went home frustrated. This is typical of Korea, they don't care about foreigners or their problems.

I then went to immigration. They are only interested in catching illegal foreigners and were no help. The acknowledged that KM were illegal but recommended that I go to the Ministry of Labor and the Tax Department. In fact I am sure the police officer went straight to the company and took a bribe.

I contacted the media but did not get a reply.

So I kind of hit a brick wall and don't know what to do next.

Other option are:

1. Another visit to the Ministry of Labor with a letter written in Korean.

2. Contacting the Ministry of Education because it is illegal for public schools to have contracts with a company. This would get the schools in trouble which I actually don't want to do.

3. Go to the Taxation depatment.

I would appreciate any advice from foreign teachers who have successfully done any of these things before.

Cheers

[Erik the Viking]

Yesterday the Korean Times published this article. Check it out:


http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200506/kt2005060219263854060.htm

[UncleAlex]

I'd call the National Police in Yongsan if I were you.