Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chickenrun]

the issues
1 No health insurnace for a start!!!!! 6 months of asking a visit to the Hospital and then there are the rest of the issues

2 Two months of no refridgerator

3 three months of no books for middle school so we had to design everything and then they decided we wer'nt doing a good enough job

4 we pay no pension

5 uncertain taxing

6 we have to design the cirriculum not just a lesson plan but everything from scratch, this wasnt part of the agreement we are paid to teach and not to design the shccols cirriculum as they have nothing so at the moment we work 35 hours a week some foreign teachers are doing 45 plus a week to try keep up, of course the director has no problem with this and thinks i should to( i need to be more korean it appears) but it is all unpaid as its not teaching hours which he pays for as stated in the contract he pays only for an average of 6 teaching hours a day if its less he is expecting us to design this cirriculum for him to advertise for the parents.

7 i was told by the director and the recruiter that the school had a ciriculum it has nothing we are its sole designer.


Ive handed in my resignation 6 weeeks notice! but i have no copy of the agreement signed by him!

he refuses to give me a release letter and i would like to stay in korea.

any advice would be good!! can i take my resignation letter to immigration and have them cancel the visa ? or what are my options

phone numbers people to call etc etc i refuse to have this man walk all over me.
any help would be good

cheeers
chickenrun

[aristotle84]

can you please tell us the name of the school so others cannot be victimized?

i'm sure since you resigned it wouldnt hurt to let us know

[Masta_Don]

From when you stop working you have 2 weeks to leave the country. It has the same effect as him releasing you. Make sure that you tell immigration, when you leave, that you want to void your visa. Then you'll come back on a tourist visa and be able to start all over again. Otherwise there's not much you can do.

When I was in a similar situation even the Korean government told me that the director not paying me on time or in full wasn't neccesarily a break of the contract and I'd have to hire a lawyer to prove it. That said you can call the Korean Labor dept and they'll give you your local Labor dept info. They told me to make sure I had a translator tho.

You can get an extension on that two weeks by claiming that your employer screwed you over and now you don't have the money; up to a month extension. But it won't do you much good since you still have to leave the country to void the visa.

[inkoreaforgood]

Handing in a resignation means you screwed yourself. You have broken the contract, and there it is on paper.

Most of your issues could have been easily solved, taxes and pension would have fairly simple. Too late now, I'd say. Other things could have been handled in adult manner.

You can't get a letter of release now, nor void your visa easily. You quit, and the law sees you as the breaker of the contract. NEVER QUIT! Once you quit, and hand in some form of notice, then you have givein up many of your legal recourses.

[ChuckECheese]

[kermo]

I agree that the pension and health care issues could have been handled more effectively, but sometimes the pension office can't be bothered (as in the case of my last school.)

I don't agree that quitting = losing, though. A contract should include a clause which outlines how much notice is appropriate, and if the letter is accepted, then the contract is not broken-- it's ended mutually.

What do you mean by "the agreement signed by him"? Is this your original contract or the resignation notice?

Because your school has behaved badly, you have the moral high ground-- so don't give it up! Don't slack off at work or take undue sick days, even though you're frustrated and demoralized. Don't give them the upper hand!

Sit down with your boss/manager and calmly say this:

"I'm not happy at this school, and I'd like to leave. I expected things to be the way they are described in the contract (i.e., curriculum, work hours) and I don't feel that I'm being treated fairly.

If you don't want me to resign, then I will stay, but only if you do things legally. I'm entitled to health insurance and pension. These are the taxes I'm supposed to pay. This is what the contract says I get paid for overtime. If you can't live up to the contract, then I'm going to contact the Labour Board and the Pension office. If you want me to go away, then please give me a release letter. Thank you."

[chickenrun]

Resigning was not a sudden thing for me to do and its has been along process of trying to have things improved by discussing with the director both by me and the other teachers.

But well I have been trying for the last five months asking politely but persistanly to have things changed and I am constantly asking about the health insurance, but he tends to ignore or just brush it off as something he will do later it does not take 5 months to get the card!!!.

He also explains to us that the koreans do as he asks interms of the work load so we should to, as in coming in a couple of hours early everyday unpaid.

I have sat down and told him that it is not acceptable( always in a polite manner so as not to make him out to be the bad guy) and told him told him I wasnt happy with this situation but the repsonse I got back form him was "resign I find new teacher".

My employment agreement I signed, I never got a signed copy from him so as far as I know he has not signed it, so I am not sure if this means legally.

I have been trying to resolve things for awhile now, but I am consistantly ignored.So after much thinking I decided to resign.

I have done everything by the book so to speak.I am continuing always to be at school as and when required, I do my job very well and I gave the exact notice required of me by the contract.

Next I guess is to ask again for a release again and mention that it was his duty to supply health insurnace and the pension and that I wil go to the labour dept and pension dept and health.


This was not a rash decision and i have tried very very hard to change things my self and to discuss one on one but well it hasnt been working.

[ChuckECheese]

You and adverg are with same school, right? How many foreign teachers are there? If there are large number of foreign teachers, you and other existing teachers should work together to beat these non-sense. Everybody should call in sick and see what they would do? What would be the worst thing that the school can do? Fire you all? If they decide to fire you all, that would be fine. Demand for release letter and leave the *beep* job and get a better job. The key is to work together to fight the school.

And make sure you warn us about the school if you all are ever let go so none of us would ever apply there.

[chickenrun]

There were four of us now three, well this week i have to call in sick as i will be in the hospital lol part of my grudge about no health insurance so they will be %$@!&^ for two days with no one to cover my classes.

The new teacher seems to be happyat the moment though he knows he wont get the pension!!!!.

The other teacher i think is leaving soon to i have brought up the collective thing to act as a whole but this hasnt happened, plus people are scared that he wil withhold our last pay after we resign! that includes me ,though i will be kicking up stink if he tries.

will be asking for release again, stating the law with health cards and pension. I refuse to be bulldozed and I refuse to end up hating korea because of one bad experience.


Though I also take full repsonsibiltiy for being a first timer and I should have checked things out more and got the contract checked properly so my bad there.

but at the end of the day so far i have had a great time in korea just my job is well hell

[chickenrun]

yeah adverge and i were at same school,

[hellofaniceguy]

Once again...the name, location of the school. Or is that to difficult to post?

[chickenrun]

Be warned

LeL siji language school Daegu

The boss tells you he is doing you a FAVOUR not paying the pension and not paying health insurance.Both are legal requirements.


Any repairs or things needing done in your apartment, I hope you have a lound voice.

Work load you are paid for 30 pretty standard, but the amount of work they wanted was seriously stupid. you are there from about 230pm to 930pm doing five hours free work, this is expected of you.you get one half hour break.

The upper classes have no cirriculum, you are in charge of putting it together.
youl need to have Lesson plans done also( not outlines)
there are boooks but the classes were split into speaking and writing, so you have to choose and select from the books the material you want to use. The books are more adult orientated so you have to decide whats appropriate and what isnt this can be hit or miss really. you must give hand outs to all the kids they dont have there own books to use.This may not sound like much but when you are copying for 12 kids at 5 pages each, it takes time plus one copier between 8 teachers, get inline( thats more a small issue really but it annoyed the crap out of me especially as it always broke down).

An average class I guess could take 30 to 50 minutes to put together, now when you have 17 of these to make it adds up.

Plus working around 35 to 38 classes a week. When I was there I found I had about 7.5 to 8 hours of free time per week to design the classes often I just didnt have the time.

Along with you are repsonsible for making and marking all the tests every three weeks. you also have to give weekly grades and comments, so each day you have to grade the kids as you see them in general twice a week each class.

Though when I said i didnt have time to do all of these thigs Basically was told to use my own time and work more like a korean teacher I.E for free.

The other teachers when I was there were doing between 40 to 50 hours a week working and remmeber anything over 30 is unpaid.

It was a stressfull environment the boss didnt like being brought up on things we thought were wrong and at the end of the day it came down to he was right and we we talking at a brick wall.

Complaints seem to be a korean way of life but be prepared for the classes are to easy and the classes are to hard and then for the boss to ask for you to make it more difficult. But if there is a comlpaint about the difficulty its your fault.


I was there for just over six months everymonth I requested for health insurance( i actually ended up needing it) 3 months of no working refrigerator. 3 months of no boooks at all for the students I.E make it up out of your head. At one point we wernt even allowed to leave the building during lunch.


Im hoping things have changed for the better, especially after having two teachers doing runners and me staying and resiging which took a fight and reminders to him that he is doing things illegally.

The kids are good just the management sucks i know its korea annd its thhe way sometimes but i found a great new job so they are out there.

If the place has changed then sweet.

Other wise if you apply here be wary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[babtangee]

[chickenrun]

Cheers for that, i will do and maybe il see some progress.

Half the prob is , he thinks that we know nothing,as well we are only foreigners and that means he can do what ever he wants.

Never have i met a person like this till now with no real concern about other people. Perhaps its because i grew up on the other side of the world and just never had the chance fore this to happen, or im just blind either one.



What ever doesnt kill us can only make us stronger( or stranger)

[kermo]