Korean Job Discussion Forums

denverdeath · Joined: 21 May 2005 Location: Boo-sahn

I'm still a bit confused with this one. I understand how the power is in the owner's hands because s/he will be the one paying the money, but is everyone sure that the health office can force you to have insurance? How can they make you pay for something that you were unaware of having or using? Actually, something you neither had nor used to the best of your knowledge? That's messed. One place I worked at had teachers sign a waiver if they didn't want to pay into any of the three available policies. To my knowledge they didn't getting any of these bullsh*t surprises at the end of their contract. Who's to blame? The workplace or the health board people or both? Regardless, I think the OP is being screwed. Take what they give you and blacklist 'em. I would also question whether what they said about reimbursement for what you paid at the hospitals and pharmacies is true or not.

OP, your dog will be fine. Get him/her out whenever possible to have a breather. I brought a cat home in '99 and it was a bit hellish for him, but he forgot all about it after a day or two. Our flight plan was nearly as hellish as yours, but we had an overnight breather in Montreal before taking the last leg of our journey home. Ours was bus from Dae-juhn to Kim-po, Kim-po to JFK, La Guardia to Mtl, Mtl to home. We made it and you will too.

pdog · Joined: 31 May 2004 Location: daegu

Hey Denverdeath,

Thanks for the encouragement about the dog. He's going to have a little freak, but he has been on planes before. Just not this long. Good to hear others' stories thought. Hopefully we can get this sorted out so we can get it worked out in a somewhat favorable way. Not likely, is my feeling at the moment.

I am also feeling a little bad for the new teachers that are coming to replace us. I think it is only honourable for us to let them know our situation. Would probable be best to do that after we get our bonuses though?

Appreciate the comments... I have moved on to the Mokoli, am outta beer.

Cheers,
Pdog

denverdeath · Joined: 21 May 2005 Location: Boo-sahn

Get your money first. I wouldn't feel too guilty about telling the new teachers after the fact, especially if you didn't tell them that it's a place of perfection before. Send them an E-mail later telling them to be careful, especially wrt insurance. Maybe the director will do things the right way with the new teachers???

pdog · Joined: 31 May 2004 Location: daegu

just a quick one here before bed.... we are supposed to be paying into pension. Maybe I am, maybe they aren't? If I am paying into pension should I be able to get a reimbursement for the pension I have paid? If so, then whatever was going into pension would be made up for by what would supposedly have gone into medical, minus the money we paid for doctors and drugs on the pay as we go.... Therefore, claiming pension would cause them to be accountable. This would lead to seeing them as fucking around or as being legit...

Again, I said I am off to bed and I have had a bit of a downer of a day and this might be a far off shot. But what do you guys/girls think of it?

Cheers and goodnight,
Mike

peppermint · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:

If you're from Canada or the US, then yes you get the pension money back and that's a tidy sum, if they'd been paying in for a whole year. Like I said in my earlier post, just mention that you'll be contacting the pension fund too then ( totally reasonable, since you'd have to before you leave to get the refund) and see what happens.

Note: pension contributions are 4.5% each for you and the boss.

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

I know I'm not paying pension. Hmm. Another item for blackmail over the school.

My new advice to the OP is, blackmail them on the pension issue, threaten to make the new teacher go away by blacklisting their school, and if all else fails, get really angry, storm into the boss's office screaming unintelligably and overturn all the furniture. THen say, "we're going to the bank, NOW"

peppermint · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 4:48 pm Post subject:

If this is the only major issue you've had with the school, just make sure to tell the new teachers to opt into the medical insurance- crisis for them averted.

pdog · Joined: 31 May 2004 Location: daegu

Thanks for the advice peppermint. I'd like to storn and overturn furniture joe but that won't get things done. I will try to contact the pension office tomorrow. Thanks for putting that list on. It took me some time to clue in that that might work. It might not but anything is worth a try here. I will let the teachers know about opting in right away and how the school expects us to pay for their mistakes, but this will be done after geting our cash.

Does anyone, who has received reimbursement for their pension before or know of people that have, know how long this process takes, and if it does take a while if the money can be sent to overseas?

I came across a link on here somewhere yesterday and will attempt to find it again but like always any comments help.

Joe thanks for the motivation but I am going to have to take it a little more low key to insure we get what we believe we deserve. Peppermint thanks for the prodding towards the pension idea. Will see what happens.

Enjoy your morning coffees and teas.

Cheers,
Pdog

denverdeath · Joined: 21 May 2005 Location: Boo-sahn

You can make an enquiry at the Pension Office anytime. Give them your ARC. That will let you know whether your workplace(and you) has been contributing or not. As Peppermint said, it's a fair bit of change to receive if you're from Canada or the US when you've completed your contract and exit the country. See, a lot of these shady places assume that many of us are not going to stay for more than a year. They try to weasel out of insurance, pension, and tax payments and it may end up coming back to either haunt them or us at a later date. Let's just say that you are entitled to 2.0mil in pension(depending on your salary). Again, I think it's the "5 employee rule" thing that applies. A legit school should be matching what you should be paying. If they haven't registered you, what are your options when you are leaving in less than a week? If they have registered you, why haven't they already mentioned about doing the application for it? You're supposed to go to the office and fill out some forms and show them your passport, ARC, airline ticket, bank details in Canada, and a couple of other things which I forget now. If your workplace has been doing things legally, do you really think that the pension office is going to go out of their way to send you the money if you don't apply for it? They'll just add it to the coffers and try to tell you some kind of "Statute of Limitations" thing if you try to apply for it at a later date or something ridiculous like that. If you go and apply for it now and you find out that neither you nor your workplace has been contributing, what do you do? Go get a mil from your boss and also give them a mil of your own and then apply? In the end, you'll have about 500,000 extra even after the health insurance is taken into account; but, and maybe more importantly, your workplace will be more out of pocket and maybe they'll learn a lesson to do things the way they're supposed to. Anyway, the pension office can tell you whether you're registered or not and whether there has been payments or not. I think they do payouts four times a year, but I'm not 100% sure. If you have money there, when you're filling out the forms, check "will not be returning to Korea" to make sure that they will pay you. I've heard that it doesn't matter even if you do plan to return. It might take up to two months to get the money in your Cdn account. The last guy I helped out left at the end of August and I think he got his money in full by mid-October. Anyway, you can have the application done in one visit and it takes about two months for you to get your money; sometimes faster, sometimes slower.

p.s. I received my pension, cash in hand, twice before. They do things differently now. You have to apply for it prior to leaving. It never hurts to check on what's sitting there. I have a feeling that your hakwon hasn't been paying into it...hopefully they also haven't been trying to take it from you illegally each month.

babtangee · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:02 pm Post subject:

How many employees at your school? I don't think they have to pay pension if there are less than 5...?

Regardless, considering the dodgey act they have pulled with your medical, I would be skeptical about them having paid into your pension all this time.

Do like pepp said and call the pension fund. But FIRST TELL YOUR BOSS THAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS. If he gets nervous, doesn't want you to, bla bla, well then you can be sure they are screwing you with the medical. Also tell him you are calling the national med insurance org. As for the paperwork. As to see your pension fund acc. Make it hard for him to rob you. Don't sit around saying this sucks, but I'll take it up the a** to save the hassle. Make the hassle his.

Oh, and be nice the whole time. You're a foreigner, how are you to know the trouble his dodgey dealings might get him into...

pdog · Joined: 31 May 2004 Location: daegu

Hey all,

It continues to impress me how out in the dark I have been this whole time. It is my second time here and I guess everything seemed to have gone so smoothly the first time I questioned nothing until now. Not the same school or city... I really appreciate all this!!!

When you guys are talking about the 5 employee rule I am assuming that this means five full time employees at the workplace, any workplace and that it does not mean that there are 5 foreigners working there? Am I right to assume that for pension to kick in for all employees it must have at least five paid full time employees. At the school I am at there are 3 full time Korean teachers, a full time desk teacher/secretary, and me and my fiance. There is also a partimer that comes in mon/wed/fri. On top of that there is a director who is part owner along with a women that owns other schools, or at least one other school. Seems to me larger than a small business, but I want to make sure before I head to the tax office.

I don't mind handing over a million if it betters me and teaches them a little bit about mismanagement/foreign trickery or what ever they claim caused them to be unaware/aware of their mistake that they want us to pay for.

Denverdeath. You mention that I should head to the Pension office even before I let them know. I don't work until the afternoon and I would like to start my week of by getting something done as it is coming to the nitty gritty here. If I head there I will at least know something before I go into work.

Most importantly I need to know exactly what this 5 employee thing entails.

Again, not a great way to spend the last week. Made a good day of it today finishing up some souvenirs for friends and family, but have to head back to business. It might be that their screwing us will rebound and blow up in their faces. And I would owe a big one to all of you who have helped and continue helping.

As long as the 5 employee doesn't just pertain to 5 foreign employees which common sense tells me it can't, but then again where the hell am I.

Coffees are done and having a stout trying to cool down my nerves/anticipation and temperature...

Cheers to you all again and again,
Pdog

pegpig · Joined: 10 May 2005

I'd look into the pension the first chance you get before you go to work Monday. That way when you confront your boss (nicely now) you're better prepared if he gives you the bs.

I don't know about this whole 5 employee thing. You might want to ask them. At my current place I'm the only ft. There are 2 kt in the part of the school that I work at, but all told there are probably about 6 or so kt teaching middle school, high school, math, etc. We're not part of any pension plan. Who knows?

babtangee · Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:19 am Post subject:

denverdeath · Joined: 21 May 2005 Location: Boo-sahn

I'm pretty sure that it's five full-time employees of whatever nationality. The three full-time teachers and one full-time secretary you referred to, are they real full-timers? Do they get benefits, like health insurance, from your company? The thing is if the health people think it's a place with at least five full-timers, wouldn't the pension office think so too? It wouldn't hurt to go to the pension office and get a print-out of your record from them. It's something that you might be able to use when you go back to the office for your afternoon classes. If it turns out that he hasn't been paying anything just say nicely and in a nice questioning way, "Why do the National Health Plan people get money but not the pension office?" Or, if they were paying into it, you might ask sweetly, "When were we going to apply for the reimbursement?"