Korean Job Discussion Forums

afsjesse · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Location: Kickin' it in 'Kato town.

So I've been in Hangeul land for 6 months now and I had an eery feeling that my hakwon wasn't paying into my health and pension. He would accompany me to the doctor, offer to pay etc.... Well I went down to the national pension/health office today and they told me that he was paying my health care, but not my pension..... Kind of a loopy situation.

So the obvious thing to do woud be to confront him.. yes? Except consider this. He isnt deducting my monthly bills from my pay each month. He's saving them up til the end of the contract when I'm expected to pay them. This includes my health care and supposedly my pension. Should I wait to tell him then, put a nice smile on my face and tell him to deduct his share of it off the total bill, or should I just threat him with the labor board stuff..???

bellum99 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: don't need to know

Wait till after 6 months is over and then deal with it right away. Be firm and strong.

michael5799042 · Joined: 16 Jan 2008

He will deduct your bills from your severance and I am sure he will take a nice extra chunk for himself. You won't stand a chance of getting it from him at the end.

I went to the pension office over a pension last year. I think the school just bribed them and then they treated me like crap afterwards.

I did get some of it in the end, but only after a lot of fighting with the school. They told me they couldn't afford to pay the pension so I asked them to put that in writing so I could go and get a new job. Then when they did give it to me they said I had to sign a form to get the pension. This year I work at a new school so I went to the pension office to ask for the unpaid contributions and that is when I found out that the form (all in Korean) said I was renouncing all claims to the unpaid pension. So don't sign anything!

Sounds like your boss is a thief and he will do everything he can to rip you off.
You should devise a good plan in case he tries to really rip you off in the end. The hogwon I worked in gave me 1,000,0000 won less than I was owed on my last day so I stood at the front desk looking pissed off and arguing with them. They kept trying to get me to move and go teach my classes but I kept refusing. Everyone coming into the school could tell I was furious, they finally paid it to me a few hours later.

Good luck!