Korean Job Discussion Forums

semphoon · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: Where Nowon is

Hi there,

I have been in Korea for 3 months and I am loving it. Things are going well and I get on with my boss.

Although 2 issues worry me...

Holidays -

I have been told (verbally) that my holidays will INCLUDE the weekend, however this is not mentioned in my contract. It states that I am entitled to 10 days holiday. If I leave on Monday and am on holiday until the Friday, my boss will count that as seven days holiday. If I leave on Wednesday and return on Monday, this is 5 days holiday. This ignores that fact that I never work on Saturday or Sunday....and that my hagwon is closed on said days.

Have you ever come across this situation?

Pay - a winter vacation thing.

I have been paid on time anin full so far. For winter vacation I will be working 15 extra hours a week. A total of 60 hours. I have been offered 500,000 for this. If I enforce my contract I would receive over 1,000,000 for the extra hours.

I am getting along well with my boss and for Christmas he took me snow borading at Young Pyoung. Things are going well. However, if I let him away with this will he take advantange of me again?

Any suggestions? Advice?

Thank you very much for your time.

kat2 · Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Location: Busan, South Korea

As for the holiday thing, that is definitly sketchy. I would try to talk to him about that one. I don't know what the laws are, but it seems unreasonable.
As for the overtime pay, you should get exactly what is in your contract. Don't let him push you around on that at all or he will be asking you to teach at a reduced rate all the time. He is testing the waters to see if he can get you to do it. Don't let him.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

cdn_guy7610 · Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Location: Suwon

Your contract seems to be missing a few key points, if in doubt about anything in your contract, try to get it rewritten so both parties are happy. However i don't agree with the myth. A lot of academies give 5 week days in the winter and another 5 in the summer. Not including weekends. However my current contract is different as I teach adults, which makes me work 20 days a month, any extra days are off days, but teaching kids are different. If you can't come to an agreement, talk to the labour board and see what there opinion is. Also keep track of you overtime on paper fromt he school, so you can use that for later purposes to get reimbursed the money you are owed.

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

riley · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: where creditors can find me

My first school had the same policy as yours about vacations. They counted saturdays as part of our vacation, even though it wasn't in the contract and we weren't working them. As a group, we foriegn teachers stuck together and got the time off.
The Urban Myth is correct in that it is a common practice, doesn't make it right though. If you want to fight, you have 2 points that help you. The first is that your contract doesn't make any mention of what days count for workdays, so push for 5 workdays. The second point is that they aren't open on Saturdays, so this isn't a workday.
Taken together, the holidays and overtime, I have to say your boss doesn't sound that great. He/she sounds like someone who is staking territory and seeing how far you can be pushed. I will predict that you will have more problems later, now matter what you do. (this prediction like all others, comes with no warranty or satisfaction gauranteed.)

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

That's just ridiculous. Saturdays and Sundays are the weekend. Any of you who are accepting, or have accepted, this are/were probably just immature and inept at dealing with people. It's just blatant mistreatment of the employee.

Stand up for yourself! If he doesn't budge/keeps putting off resolving it, tell him you're going to call the labor board.

Other than that, the boss probably doesn't want you to be away from the hagwon too long. I doubt it's a pay issue. More of an issue of the teacher not teaching and the parents being upset. If you just want to avoid all confrontation, take your vacaction with the weekends and long weekends and ask to get paid for the days you don't take.

I have ten vacation days/year. So far, I've only taken four. One was a whole day off. I worked the other three, but that was during summer camp and I got my vacation pay plus the pay for the extra hours that I worked. I had a choice whether to work those days or not, but I chose to. For the money.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

Point out the contract..politely. Be firm and make sure he knows that under no terms will you accept 1/2 pay. He is testing to see how far he can rip you off....if you lay down for this be prepared for a royal screwing later on.

As for the vacation time.....if necessary pull out a definition of vacation.
If you dont work Sat/Sun then there is absolutely no way you should accept his BS! 10 days off is in addition to regular days off...not including. You could compromise by saying that you could take the remainder of your vacation in the last week of the contract...getting ready to go....if you feel generous you could offer to sell him back the days you dont use....at 100,000 won a day....so 4 days would be a nice bonus! But dont let them steal your time.

You may want to wait until you have been here for 6 months before you bring up the vacation time. That way if things explode you wouldnt have to pay back airfare.

paperbag princess · Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Location: veggie hell

to the spiderman song:

labour board... labour board... call the freaking labour board....

1350

babtangee · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:59 am Post subject:

I get 5 WORKdays of for vacation, and my hagwon is not a classy joint by any stretch of the imagination. Accepting weekends as vacation time is just ludicrous to me. That's a five day trip opposed to nine (seven if your boss is an arsehole and just plain hates you - by forcing you to start your vacation mid-week).

I also don't like it when my boss wants to do nice things for me (going on weekend trips, dinner and drinks out, buying my lunch, etc.): it's all well and good, and he isn't a completely unlikable guy - so it can result in having a good time; but it feels too much like emotional extortion.

Like when someone you are doing business with says, "Let's be friends." Of course, what they really mean is, "Let me impose the appearance of friendship on you, so that I may forgo the necessary demonstration of mutual respect when doing business with someone."

I just know when I insist he give me the 90,000 he 'forgot' to pay me he is thinking, "How can he be so rigid, after all I did for him." But work is work. I don't work one hour for free (or even a free meal I never asked for).

I also think: he asked me to go to dinner or wherever, which means he wanted my company. If it's something he wants why should I pay for accepting his request?

I do think I repay him for his not being a terrible boss, however. By teaching the overtime classes he asks me to teach, despite my preferring not to teach any. But I make sure I get paid the correct weight for my time.

Bling · Joined: 10 Oct 2005

The same thing happened to me recently regarding the hols - my boss told me that my 5 days vacation was to be Weds-Sun. I put my 'assertive' hat on and told him that since our working days were Mon-Fri, the weekends were not included as 'days off'. We argued back and forth for a bit, but I did not budge, and I think he sensed that I wouldn't...and we came to an agreement that I would take 3 days during winter, 3 days in summer and 4 days in April. Most hagwons (I think?) are shut for 3 days for summer/winter holidays, and the rest of the teachers have this time off as well. Therefore it is 'easy' for your boss to give you 3 days - he/she doesn't have parents expecting their kids to have your classes on those days. At any other time, it is going to be obvious to the students that you are not there, so he/she might try anything to get you to stay at school.
I think you should try and be assertive with your boss, especially now (otherwise, as many others have pointed out, things will only get worse). Use your contract as a guide, and be well prepared before you talk to him (mentally prepared to be strong, as well as versed in what you're going to say). If it's not going well, you could pull out the EFL Law call, as others have suggested.

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

Basically, the hagwon needs you there. They probably don't want to give you 10 days off. Just get compensated for it. If vacation is really important to you then just take it. Say "I'm taking these days off". That's it.

A poster above said something about saying "Well, this is the way it is" and being silent. It works. Trust me.

I need a long vacation. Doesn't look like there will be one in the near future. But there could be. At least I get compensted for what vcation I don't take.

Saturdays and Sundays are not vacation time. C'mon.