Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itsme]

When you go to sleep, you expect the sun to rise in the morning. When you hand the cashier money you expect him or her to give you back change if owed...

my questins is: what are some of the assumptions that you all have been led to believe concerning contracts and verbal promises that have been contradicted by your employer?

Do you believe that employers intentionally use ambiguous language to deceive prospective employees? For example: "overtime is generally optional" when in fact they intend to work you many overtime hours.

What are some of your experiences with this and if you could go back in time what would you have insisted be clarified before submitting to the agreement?

[Son Deureo!]

My most dangerously wrong assumption on my first contract was assuming that 30 teaching hours a week meant I wouldn't spend much more than 6 or 7 hours a day on site. 8 tops. Creative scheduling had me there from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. My life really sucked that year. Lesson learned: be sure to get the beginning and end of your work day in your contract before you come.

[IwalkAlone]

1. Make sure it defines what a teaching hour is. 50 minutes of teaching and 10 minutes of preparation = 50 minutes paid....
This can make "30 classes a week" become "32 classes a week"

2. Make sure your deduction for tax is in accordance with korean tax codes, otherwise anything could be considered a tax. "Oh, you used 10 sheets of paper today...we'll just add that to the ol' supplies tax!

3. Make sure vacation days are unique from holidays, otherwise 10 vacation days becomes 0! (FYI there are 17 holidays in a year)

4. Make sure the employer knows that 60 days notice to leave means you are not breaking the contract. 60 days is actually more than what's required by law, but what's even more important is that by giving notice, you are keeping to the contract and are entitled to your LOR.


For the last point, some employers feel that if you quit, you are breaking the contract. They don't understand that terminating and breaking are wholly two different things. Terminating is covered in the clauses near the end of the contract...and is a means to legally quit.

[inkoreafornow]

Make sure that your 5 day vacation runs Monday-Friday and not Wednesday-Sunday.

Make sure that your vacation is during your contract and not the week after your contract ends. I know that sounds hard to believe but they really did try and pull that on me.

Make sure that you get paid to feed the kindi kids lunch and don't accept "free lunch" as adequate payment (unless the food is fantastic).

Make sure that your severance pay and last paycheck are payed out before you leave the country.

[xingyiman]

I've heard of the some of the best, assumingly well written contracts violated by employers and some schools offering some of the vaguest, ill written ones turn out to be great deals. I've often heard peope warn others that "Koreans dont consider the contract to be a legally binding offer but a starting point for further negotiations". Well, what most people fail to realize is that can work both ways. "If you want to short me on my vacation time - fine. Oh by the way, that evening class that I've been doing on the side for your children just got cancelled as well." People, get some guts and some negotiating skills. I had a written contract and a great looking gig in America once and was fired without notice or compensations and they got away with it Scott free. It can hapen anywhere. To work any job in a foreign culture you must have thick skin and know when to bluff and stand your ground as well as when to yield some things for the greater good.

[UncleAlex]

Some contracts, especially those of public schools, are written in both
English and Korean. Court of law, of course, recognizes the Korean in a
case of labour dispute, so be sure that both linguistic versions mean the
same thing.