Korean Job Discussion Forums

header · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:42 pm Post subject: Is this my responsibility?

Hey, I'm sorry to be a newbie here and posting right off the bat with a problem. I just came to Korea almost 2 months ago and just got internet this week. So far I love it, but I also personify 'a series of unfortunate events' - I lost my wallet while visiting a friend on my first weekend here and had no money/food for over a month, but that is another story. I was just wondering if I am responsible to pay taxi/bus to get to and from my schools.

My boss (for a lack of better term) pimps me out to 3 different schools and one business class each week. One school is a half hour taxi ride away, and the other is a half hour bus ride with a 10-minute car ride. I take the company bus to the company and he picks me up (eventually) afterwards. He usually drives me to the third school. There is no mention of who is to cover the cost in my contract. Sometimes he just forgets to pick me up, so I have to take a taxi home, as I am still unfamiliar with the bus system. I have tried to ask him whether or not I should pay or not, but he says that "we'll talk later" and "later" never comes. Should I pay up and just keep a running tab of sorts?

Also, I got some letters stuck in my door last week (I don't know where my mailbox is, and my boss tells me to ask the landlady who cannot speak English) and I brought them to my business class today to translate them in case they were important. Well, they were important. It turns out that they were my bills, which I have no problem paying. However, it turns out that the girl before me did not pay her electric bill for her last 2 months, and I have a warning to pay or be cut off. Do I have to pay for her electricity bill? November, and December were not paid, I arrived on December 29th. I will gladly pay for part of December, half of it at the VERY most (I think that is me being overly generous), but as for November, and the first part of the month, I feel that it should not be my burden to bear.

I think I just said a mouthful, and any insight would be awesome.

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

1. If you are being pimped out to other schools do you have immigration approval? If not, you are doing something highly illegal. Even if the boss owns the other brnaches you can't work at any other place other than the school listed on your visa.

2. Get your boss to either give you an allowance or pick you up.

3. Bill. Given that your boss sounds like my old boss you have two choices. You can either pay it yourself after raising it politiely with now and he says no OR you can make a big stand over this issue and have it bite you in the ass later.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

ilovebdt · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Location: Nr Seoul

header · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:44 pm Post subject:

For the most part, I literally had no money until last week (due to the wallet missing and no pay advance), so my boss, or the directors at the other schools would pay. At the moment, I have an envelope in my purse with money in for from my Wednesday school to use for a taxi to get to that said school. It is only lately that he's been getting "forgetful" at picking me up, and I get frustrated after waiting idly for a half hour after teaching.

I met someone who told me that I should have the addresses of all the schools I teach at on the back of my alien card, but I have none. Can I assume that it is probably just his school that I am registered with? Before coming over here, he told me I would be teaching at his school which is a 3 minute walk from my apartment, but upon arriving, it was a different story. My contract says that I'm not allowed to discuss my contract with a third party, and it also states that "The teacher shall faithfully teach students at locations designated by The School".

I should be seeing him in the next 3 hours before he sends me in a cab to my Wednesday school and I will show him and discuss the bills when I see him. Wish me luck on that one. His wife picked me up (late) from my business class today and I didn't feel that it would be right to discuss the bills with her rather than him. I am stressed out all to heck and feel like a complete idiot. I am trying to see the bright side of this being an experience in coping skills and whatnot. Thanks though, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who sees something fishy going on. I mean, I really do like all of the schools I go to, my coworkers are awesome, and the kids are great. Of course there's always a terror here and there, but hearing from other people's experience, I have awesome kids. I teach almost 150 kids (combined) and can call them all by name. I enjoy it, and it's these little things that is the sand in my vasoline.

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

Your boss is a dork.

Give your head a shake. Why should you pay someone else's bills? Why should you pay for transportation between schools? Why is your boss making you teach illegally?

Why don't you stand up for yourself?

Big Mac · Joined: 17 Sep 2005

It sounds to me like you signed yourself a pretty crappy contract.

Working at multiple locations and may not have immigration approval? Having to pay travel costs to go from one school to another? Bills in the mail that aren't yours but which you may have to pay? All the bad signs are there.

I wonder what else you're getting screwed out of that you don't know about yet.

Good luck.

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

header · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:38 pm Post subject:

I got paid this past week, in full (which included my bonus from working overtime last month) and it was even a day early. Hoorah for that at least.

I'm meeting up with him soon to talk about the bills, I only found out this morning what they really meant, so I'm hoping to have that all straightened out by the end of the day. I am going to refuse to pay for most of the bill considering that I was not even in the country for much of the billing period. I was talking to a friend of mine, and we have the beginnings of a 'just in case' plan of escape worst case scenerio.

UncleAlex · Joined: 04 Apr 2003

If travelling expenses between class locations aren't covered in the contract,
then you might have to hitch hike to your classes unless your boss turns out to be
a nice guy. As for the unpaid hydro bills 2 months in arrears, don't pay them!

" I'm stuck in a moment I can't get out of." Cool

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

ontheway · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:21 am Post subject:

header,

Some others mentioned it, but they didn't stress it, so here goes.

Your ARC has an address on it. One location. That is the only place you can work legally. Turn it over and look on the back side. Do you see any additional locations written in. No, I'll bet you don't.

You are working illegally.

Probably, you will never be caught. Probably, nobody cares. But, do YOU? You should think about it, even if you keep going the way it is. You are taking a risk.

As far as the money for transportation and the prior utility bills, the boss should pay. Follow jacl's advice, but in a little more diplomatic fashion.

pegpig · Joined: 10 May 2005

Some posters are being a little hard on someone new to the country. Remember your first contracts you signed. I'm sure there were a lot of things you didn't know about either and perhaps could not have foreseen. I didn't know about Dave's before I came, so didn't have that extra help. And, in many ways that's a good thing. It's easy to get too much 'information' on here. Obviously when she got here she didn't know about the 'pimping'. (Oooo, what a lovely sentence.) She'll just have to talk about it with her boss.

You got your first pay in full, so chances are things will be okay. Hopefully, he pays the ex-teacher's bills. I had a 3~4 month cable bill left behind when I arrived at one school. Between me giving it (the bill) to the boss and the cable company continuing to send bills, it took a year for the bills to finally stop coming and not because it was paid. The school shutdown after 7 months, but I stayed in the apt for a couple of years or so.

Just keep pressing the boss, diplomatically - for now. Good luck.

sadsac · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Gwangwang

The previous teachers bills are not your responsibility, neither is the payment of fares. Speak wth your director, ask him for a daily travel allowance. You know how much the fares are, ensure that you get it at the end of each day prior to the next days teaching. Next day, just give him the receipts. As far as the legality of your teaching outside your primary place of employment, in Korea it only becomes illegal if you are caught. Smile

header · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject:

No worries, no one is being harder on me than I am being on myself right now. I remember asking the recruiter (now I know not to go that route) questions about my contract, and he would say that it was just poor English wording. I naively thought all contracts were like that. Lessons learned. So all this coming towards me is taken more as useful advice.

I was talking with my boss today (he didn't show up yesterday to toss me in the cab, so he had his receptionist do it for him) and he is going to pay that bill, or at least that's my understanding. And while I was leaving Wednesday school last night, the director gave me a fistfull of cash to pay for my taxi there for the month of March. I feel bad that she's paying, and I tried to explain to her that my director should pay, but, you know, language barrier.

As for my whole legality issue, have many teachers been caught? What's the penalty? Is there a way I can register these shools myself? What would happen if I step forward to immigration and explain what's happening? I really like it here, and would love to continue teaching. This should probably be another thread or something, and I'm sorry if it should be and I'm bringing it up here.