Korean Job Discussion Forums

Angrycareb · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Location: Wifi Monkey Land

i received the following email concerning my pay last week:

Hi,

{first paragraph removed}

As this school is a "Public Elementary School" the payment system (salary) is paid different to that of a Private Institute.

The English Manager requires you to open a bank account in your name (at the Woori Bank) and to give the bank book and cashcard/keycard/ pin number to the English Manager.

This is done for a couple of reasons... Let me explain.... whilst you are teaching at the school - the gov't.... students parents and school deposit differing amounts of cash and student fees into the Woori bank account opened in the Foreign Teachers name.

The Manager/School then pays the relevant fees and taxes from this money, and then pays both yourself and your Korean assistants salary to you from the remainder of the money. (after income & residences tax, classroom costs etc)...

This ensures that your salary is always paid into your personal bank account - always on your pay-date (the date you commenced teaching)... and you are always paid the correct amount.

At the end of your employment at the school - you can ask the English Manager to return the bankbook and keycard to you - or simply close the account.

You are required to open a Woori bank account - and to give the bank book/key(cashcard) and pin code to your Korean teacher assistant by Monday next week.

If you have any questions regarding this procedure, etc - please feel free to contact us....

Thanks for your time.

my first reaction was 'hell no', but i don't think i'll get paid properly otherwise ...

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

This just seems so bogus. Why the hell should you have to give the pin away to your school manager? This is just asking for problems.

If they want you to open an account......fine, but the rest of it seems a bit sketchy to me.

Is this a common practice for people teaching in public schools?

peppermint · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject:

It seems to be common among people working at the after school programs at elementary schools. That doesn't mean it's legal though.

jaderedux · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Lurking outside Seoul

Let me think about that...

no....

wait

no....

Check EFL law this is not a good idea.

If you do this then open another account and empty your money into it. One that you have the bank book and card.

I strongly urge you to not do this. To many scams start with just this scenerio.

Jade

sheba · Joined: 16 May 2005 Location: Here there and everywhere!

Why does all the money (from the school, govt, parents etc) get paid into 'your' account and not the schools/directors account? How are you paid? If you are paid in cash then why do you absolutely need an account? If you are paid into you account, then how do you access the money if the director has your book and card?

Sounds very dodgy....

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

If it's really a public school, it should not matter where you open an account. Also, they don't need your bankbook or PIN. They may want a copy of the first page of the bankbook, for the account number to deposit money into your account.

Also, the vast majority of public school teachers have Nonghyup accounts. I believe it has something to do with the teacher's union favoring Nonghyup.

peppermint · Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:09 pm Post subject:

There are two kinds of programs going on at elementary schools- one where teachers are part of the school staff, and teach the regular curriculum, and the other which is basically a hagwon program that takes place at the school. This sounds like the latter.

For some reason, everyone teaching these afterschool programs seems to get paid by this method, but it still seems like even if it is legal ( doubtful) then there's a lot of room for abuse there.

the eye · Joined: 29 Jan 2004

yeah, there's absolutely no reason to give anyone the keys to your money.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

ok here's why it's dodgy. The school pays you say 3million. Then the recuirter pays you 2 million while not paying tax. Who's the one in trouble? the one with the name on the account.

hadeshorn · Joined: 30 Jul 2003

Actually my friend just got screwed by this whole thing.

He was working at an elementary school. He had a contract with the school and a contract with a recruiter.

Now the english program that was offered at the school was basically outsourced to this recruiter. The recruiter then hires a waygooking and a korean to teach the program.

Depending on how many students are enrolled is how much money the recruiter gets. However the waygooking and the korean get the same wage no matter what.

Anyway this month numbers were down and the recruiter said, Bah screw it, its not worth the hassle and said to my friend that he wasnt going to complete the contract and he is on his own.

The recruiter was responsible for the airfare and bonus not the school, so my friend wasnt happy here. He was further angry to find out that the school had remitted to the recruited the fees for september on the third of the month (Roughly) and that the recruiter was going to keep the september money and not pay my friend for the week he had worked.

So my friend went and messed up the guys office and threw his shit on the ground and got his money.

But even if the bank account was still in the recruiters name, this still could have happened i spose, but this is the problem with this whole new scheme of things.

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Angrycareb · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Location: Wifi Monkey Land

it is an after school program. the visa is nailed to the elementary school itself. and there is only one contract to the school. as near as i can tell (since i've been asking around) is that my "English Manager" and her company are the middlemen between myself and the school.

the reason for having the account in my name is 1) from mulitple deposits from many sources (i.e. parents, school, and government) throughout the month, from this the English Manager will pay me and my assissant, and 2) to avoid having the middlemen company needing to pay the taxes if all the money was deposited into one account like a regular business.

a friend of a friend who manages another after school program said tonight that this is the standard way of operation. but who is left holding the tax bag? the dirty foreigner, that's who.

i told the person who sent the 'request' that i'm not comfortable with this situation and requested things to be handled a different way. i'm already working, i already went to Fukuoka, and the job is awesome otherwise.

i really need cash after the near death crash and burn of a headless Seongbuk W/Ewha that i was involved in for the last five months. those monkeys still owe me cash.

Red · Joined: 05 Jul 2004

If you do decide to do as they ask you, I can pass you along to this Nigerian prince who keeps emailing me about getting gold out of his country...

Seriously, don't.

ontheway · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:06 am Post subject:

This does not sound legal. It could be legal, there are a lot of strange laws and loopholes in the world, so maybe some clever accountant found a way to legally lower their business tax liabilities.

BAH! I would gladly bet a million won today this is illegal tax evasion. (Would that be illegal gambling?) Businesses pay many kinds of taxes in Korea. Some are based on their total revenues, which they are cleverly hiding in your account. You could actually be held liable for some of those taxes. This would be a great system for money laundering too, though that doesn't appear to be the intent of this scheme.

Of course, it could go on for years. They might never get caught.

The big problem for you:
1 your name is on the account so you could have legal liabilities in the future (civil and criminal). It appears that you are paying your Korean coworker. Are you liable for his unpaid earnings? taxes? insurance?
2 even if you have no legal troubles your money is more at risk

SO, at the very least, I would continue to resist this scheme and look for some alternative payment system. I wouldn't rag at them too much about it being illegal: many illegal activities are just SOP or are undertaken for political reasons by organized groups of business owners and accountants. I would instead express unwillingness to participate in the scheme as it is. Could they pay you another way?

How hard you push depends on your personal feelings of risk and your willingness to go now and find yet another job.

Sorry. I know it's painful. If it were me, I'd have to quit and get a new job.

Good luck.

Red · Joined: 05 Jul 2004

I went away and thought about the problem for the last 15 minutes, and I think I came up with the only sensible solution:

Don't do it.