Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gardimus]

Ok, here goes, a friend and I have been in Korea for 11 and a half months and are currently nearing the end of our bumpy year long contract. I won't bore you all with every little detail just with the final blow we're now having to sort out.
Originally we were both employed in an ECC in Guri but also teaching Kindergarten classes in another ECC in Mang-u-ri, at least 2-3 days a week(if you've seen TEFLwatch u'll know the one). Also, both these schools are owned by the same director Anyway, one day at Guri school the Korean teachers didn't show up, and never came back, for one week we were teaching twice the amount of kids with no lesson plans and no-one telling us what the *beep* was going on. Our older kids were the ones who told us that Guri school was closing. Our director avoided us completely while the memebrs of staff from Jung-Lang (Mang-u-ri school) played dumb.
Guri closed at the end of December and we were asked to come into the Jung-lang ECC. There were already 3 Foreign teachers there so we were all wondering how this was going to work out. Told not to worry about our jobs, everything was fine. We told our director that we wouldn't take a pay cut, which he wasn't happy about, so made sure that we were working the full amount of hours, without it becoming overtime. Fair enough, we did it, we were settled, we were half way through our contract so we stuck it out. When 2 of the original Jung-lang teachers left, we re-newed our contract for the Jung-Lang school. We checked that it was a continuation of our original contract and that we were still finishing on the original date.
Around 2 months ago, our director tried to say that we agreed to stay on for an extra 2 months, which we didn't, We said this wasn't the case and he seemed to accept this. Now though he's saying that we are only entitled to half of our severance because the school we originally worked at closed down. This was never mentioned at the time and has only just arisen in the last week. In a meeting we had with him he offered our full severance but only if one of us stays for another 2 months, he'll pay half when one leaves and the other half when the 'lucky' one finishes her prolonged sentence. Ace!
I'm just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation? (stupid question) If so, how did u deal with it? Does anyone know a number for an English speaking lawyer? Will the threat of a legal proceeding be enough? Do we even have a leg to stand on? Is going on strike an affective method?
Please any help would be greatly appreciated, we have our next meeting with him in a couple of days.

[kat2]

The owner sounds like a real winner and its terrible what he is doing to the two of you. However, if you were working illegally at the other center (immi still thinks you were only ever working at the first school), you may have some trouble. I would try some good old blackmail before you bother with courts and labor board and all that. Teach a lesson on how to give phone numbers, write them all down, and threaten to start calling parents. Owners want to uphold their reputation with the parents over anything. While it is sad that we have to resort to these tactics, sometimes its the only thing that seems to get through to them.