Korean Job Discussion Forums

[peppermint]

It's five full time employees of whatever nationality, and you should still play this card because if there's less than five you can be exempted from the medical coverage too.

A friend got his deposited into his Korean account (which he acesses from the states) and said it took a little over a month from application to deposit.

[pdog]

Hey again,

If five is the number and not more than 5 we should be good to go... I don't know if they are paying all their benefits or how their pay goes. This might be a problem is we show up at the pension office tomorrow and find out we have to pay. Or is it that if there are less than 5 full time employees then no one should be paying pension? I am guessing that they would be considered full time workers though...

From babtangee I went to the link and found this info which seems to me that we should have been paying pension and that we are entitled to a reimbursement. Here it is:
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1. Foreigners and Coverage


At the time of the introduction of the Scheme, foreigners were not mandatorily covered. Only foreigners working in a workplace covered under the Scheme could be covered as an Workplace based Insured Person by submitting an application.

Foreigners working at the workplace with more than 5 full-time employees were included in the mandatory coverage in August 1995 and those working at the workplace with less than 5 employees including self-employed foreigners were also included in the mandatory coverage in April 1999. Accordingly, foreigners aged from 18 to less than 60 who reside in Korea must be, in principle, covered under the Scheme. But foreigners falling under any of the following items are excluded from the coverage.

��Û Those whose country does not mandatorily cover Korean citizens under its pension scheme.
��Û Foreigners who are not registered under the Immigration Act, or to whom the forced deportation order has been issued under the same Act, or who are staying in Korea without being permitted to extend their term of stay.
��Û Among the registered foreigners under Immigration Act, those whose stay status falls under any of the followings; culture & art, studying abroad, industrial training, general training, religion, visiting & living together and others.
��Û People excluded from the mandatory coverage of National Pension Scheme, by the social security agreement.

2. Foreigners and payment of Lump-sum Refund
Foreign Insured Persons under the National Pension Scheme are equally treated as the national Insured Persons. For example, there is no discrimination in terms of the benefit amount and remitting benefit abroad, etc. But there is a certain distinction in regarding Lump-sum Refund. In principle, Lump-sum Refund is not paid to foreigners leaving Korea after having been covered under the Scheme. But, in the case of foreigners falling under any of the following items, Lump-sum Refund is paid.

��Û People whose country grants Koreans a benefit corresponding to Lump-sum Refund under the National Pension Scheme.
��Û People whose country concludes a social security agreement with Korea to secure benefit right by totalling Insured period in each country.
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I don't know how well that pasted on and am sorry if sucks. But what is written there seems to imply that we should have been paying and should receive the lump sum in the form of payment through our Cdn bank account.

So, I guess we should head to pension asap. The only thing that is restraining me, and that only by the force of some thread, is the fact that I don't know if the Korean's are paying in regards to benefits. I know we all get paid on the same day but dat is all.

So, peppermint, babtangee, denverdeath, pegpig and everyone else I again thank you for your continuous input. And again, any little bit helps.

Cheers on this hot night,
Pdog

[/b]

[denverdeath]

[pdog]

Hey denverdeath,

Sorry for bothering you again. I will go check things out tomorrow morning. However if the pension people say that no one has been paying into pension I should still go to my school and let them know that it this is how it should be. Of course not in a negative way but in a pleasantly serious kind of way. They will probably tell me that it does not need to have been done. If they do say this which they most likely will as they will try to stall any further payments on their part as we are coming to a close here should I let them know that Pension or government will be notified by Korean family, who we luckily have over here, though they are in Seoul and we are in Daegu. They will likely take this as a big insult as they do any questioning of their logic.

But from this thread, it seems to me that pension should be paid into and therefore subsequent reimbursement. Going to Pension tomorrow will clarify whether the school has been paying pension. I doubt it but have to make sure. Then I will let them know that they should have been paying pension if they legally expect us to pay medical comp. This will have to be done in a civil manner of course, yet I only expect the run around. And from what I know about our bank statements we have been paying just over 100 000/month. Guessing this is going into income tax which means we are paying just over 5% income tax. I don't know what the income tax rate is but I have always assumed between 3-6% were this falls under. Hence the doubt that pension has been paid. This leads me to the difficulty in trying to get them to pay the back tax so that I can claim pension. But, it seems that most likely they should be entitled to doing this if they are wanting to be legit, which, in their words was their reason for wanting us to pay a years medical with only 5 days remaining...

Circular and a little dizzying. I am trying to get hold of a Korean aquaintance who is an accountant. Might shake them up a little bit? And the family in Seoul will be contacting the Med board or officials so should have a better idea tomorrow. But will head to the Pension office in the morn to find out what I think I might. At least that will lead to our next stage of this battle...

Thanks again denverdeath and all. Sorry for this bumbling but trying to get all corners/angles covered so I am set up for a Monday morn at the Pension office...

Best and cheers,
Pdog

[denverdeath]

pdog,

Hope I catch you before you leave. The paystubs I've had in this country almost always had income tax, residence tax, pension, and health in the minus column. They have tax tables here, same as in Canada. The more you make, the more you are taxed, just much lower here than there. Some of the places lump everything together and don't tell you what it's for. Your 100,000 might be regular income tax plus residence tax but I'm not sure. The one small place I worked at didn't have the pension. However, he(our boss) asked us(the two foreigners) about both medical and pension and whether we wanted them. We didn't get this crap like you're getting at the end. Of course I've heard worse stories. You can try to get your family to do the Ministry of Labour thing with the issue if you think it's worth it. It may not be worth the time and effort. However, it does seem like they're trying to rip you off a lttle with this insurance stuff. Doing the pension office thing is at least good to let your boss know that you're not as stupid as he may like to believe, right? Make him sweat a little too. That's good.

[pdog]

Hey,

You know what? We never received payment stubs. Everything went right into our accounts. When we asked last week for a summary of our pay and what we were paying in regards to what had been coming off our salary, they got mad at our request not understanding what we were requesting 'so they said' and then a minute before we left on Friday night they told us we owed them medical money for the year. But coming full circle... that was a choice they gave us a long time ago. A choice...

Thanks denverdeath,
Pdog

[pdog]

Hey all,

Just got off the phone with my fiance's Korean aunt. She had her sister phone the medical office. They told her anyone without an E-9 visa has the choice of med or not... That being said, she is going to confirm and then we are on our way out the door to check with the pension board. Interesting start to the day, but hopefully the 9 gu (sorry for spelling) was not misinterpreted and gu was really a two?

Post again soon,
Pdog

[diablo3]

You have an E-9 visa teaching English?
Interesting, because teachers of ESL normally get an E-2 visa.

[pegpig]

He may have meant anyone with anything OTHER THAN an E-9 visa has a choice. If you have an E-9 you have no choice. Is there even an E-9?

[pdog]

I am not sure what they meant by an E-9 but it seems that anyone without an E-9 has a choice, and therefore shouldn't have it forced on them with 5 days to go.

We went down to the nearest Pension office and they checked our ARCs and passports. Nothing showed up... they then asked for the school's number and rang them up. The lady that was helping us spoke with the director and eventually handed the phone to me. The director started talking in Korean. I am ashamed to say my Korean is not too good. Her English is worse than my Korean and I had no idea what she was saying. I handed the phone back to the clerk and she spoke a while longer with the director. They got someone over who spoke some English and he told us that the director had told them that we had chosen not to take pension. So we didn't choose pension and we didn't choose medical but they want to force medical but play dumb to pension. ???

We will be walking into work today with some good pressure on us but... The pension office gave us the number of the branch in Daegu that deals with these problems and we will most likely head there tomorrow or get someone to phone them.

Now I am a little worried that they will withhold our pay and severance until the 11th of the next month when they usually pay us. It will be un-nerving thinking that they might *beep* us... But I guess the battle is on, and it seems that they have lost the first one on the medical, but not yet for sure, and this pension thing will be a bit of a professional squable.

Hope you all are having a good day,
Pdog

[pegpig]

It probably would have been better had they not called your boss. He undoubtedly won't be too happy when you get to work and you should psych yourself up for a battle, but try to stay cool. You have 10 mill riding on this.

If they've been deducting 100 k each (not combined?) and that didn't include medical, then it was obviously taxes and....drumroll......PENSION. Where is it then?

Good luck. It could be an expensive battle. You might want to remind them (ever so subtly) that they have incoming employees that you might be chatting with.

Good luck. You're probably on your way to work by now anywho.

[tzechuk]

Any news?

[pdog]

Hey all,

Sorry for getting back late. Had a long one at the school today. I was a little nervous heading in there in the heat in Daegu wasn't helping things. So here is what happened.

It took about 45 minutes for anyone to say anything. When they did they asked why we were at the National Pension this morning. I said to our translator that she has said we should check everything out because it didn't matter what we did, in the end we would have to pay the medical. We let her know that my fiance's aunt had phoned both Seoul and Daegu government medical boards and had told us that there was a choice considering medica. We told her that because she told us we should explore our possibilities we had, and that thanks to all you in dave's cafe world we had found that likely there was a pension plan that wasn't working in a legit style... So we told her that the school should be matching us with 4.5% over the year and that we wanted to go through with the pension payments.

They did not want to believe about the medical. The aunt phoned the school and explained in Korean what she had found out (we had a choice, which we made a long time ago). They did not want to commit to what she said and told her that their accountant was out at that time and could not be reached. My fiance's aunt gave them the names of the people she had spoken with and that they could confirm her information when they called tomorrow. They will and we hopefully should be okay unless something was missed.

Now, back to the pension. We told them that we want to go through with pension because it will be good for us and that in their words, two days ago, they said that we had to pay them this back pay for medical insurance... If we want to be truly legit I said that we will have to pay and so will they. That way we can feel good about going home and not worrying about ... We had them phone theaunt, who is in Seoul on vacation with her Canadian husband and their daughter, but who has a large family throughout Korea, so that we could check into what was said. We told her that we wanted to go through with pension. She got back on to the line with them and the director told her that they had asked us earlier in the year and we had said no. Seemed to us the original position had reversed itself and now they are saying that we gave them no time to get it done and that it isn't fair being all at once and that again, we said no earlier in the year. Of course we were never asked. Fiance's aunt will be calling Pension in the morning to see what the deal really is. I am thinking, from what I have read here is that we are entitled to pension if we want to go with it. But, we are squeezed for time and will have to bust our asses to get this done. But we try our damndest if Pension says we can go through with it...

That is the low down. For now. Will be back with more info asap. One question I have is how fast has someone been able to get this done before. Because if we can do it we are going to have move. A long with the packing and getting ready it is going to be stressful.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

Cheers, and this Cass/Hite/OB is for you!
Pdog

[denverdeath]

pdog,

As I mentioned, usually you can go to the pension office and do the application in one visit and then wait for your money to be sent to Canada. I'm sorry, but with your situation, I plead ignorance. It's good that you have some Koreans helping you out as otherwise the language thing could be a real problem. Just keep your eyes and ears open at work...don't trust them too much.

[tzechuk]