Korean Job Discussion Forums

R. S. Refugee · Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Location: Shangra La, ROK

I was.

This is pretty clearly a serious (i.e., it's costing me a significant amount of money) contract violation.

Has anyone had any positive experiences with Dain Bae in getting her to advocate for them in such a situation with their school?

agoodmouse · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Location: Anyang

Call her immediately. She has advocated for people in the past. This is a clear violation of contract terms. Update us.

Countrygirl · Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Location: in the classroom

I was refused the 100K contract payraise, but that is a grey area in the contract. I kept the job because I had already paid for the airfare for the homeleave and I would have lost out more if I had quit.

There should be no way that the school can refuse to pay your airfare as per the contract. You should get paid within 15 days of when you come back from your home leave.

Yes, keep us updated.

(I really don't understand why management at these schools can't see that they will spend the same or more to get a new teacher and that this penny pinching just leads to bad feelings.)

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

My home-leave airfare is gonna cost my school 2.4mill. Gonna buy the tic this week and submit copy of it and the receipt...then go back to the airline and get it refunded. Direct flights to JFK r quite expensive at the moment. Remember, they owe u a round trip DIRECT (non-stop) flight (if ur renewing) to the airport closest to ur home.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:48 pm Post subject:

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

Ok...u have to stop to get a local connection but u shouldn't have to stop at Narita. Korean air has non-stop to jfk and that's what I'm going with. Of course I could get cheaper ticket if I had to stop in Japan or Anchorage or somewhere but that wouldn't be a direct fligh, now would it? BTW, I've flown in and out of Buffalo airport many times on a friends twin engine plane in the dead of winter in heavy snows. Many times u could just barely make out the runway.

losing_touch · Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Location: Ulsan - I think!

As a former travel agent, there is a common misconception about the terms used in the airline industry. I assumed spliff knew this by putting non-stop in parenthesis. Non-Stop refers to just that. The plane does not stop. Direct refers to a flight that stops along the way, but it is not needed to change planes. Connecting flights are such that you must switch planes. This is common knowledge for travel agents, but the information is not widely disseminated. =)

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

Fook! How can u tell whether ur flight is direct or not?

R. S. Refugee · Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Location: Shangra La, ROK

OK. Well, I was holding off on the oddball detail of my situation to get some of your reactions first.

The oddball detail is this: My initial contract was not for a year; it was for 7 months (6 months, 3 weeks to be extact). Why 7 months, you ask. I asked that question also. The answer was this: The original teacher did a runner after 5 months. They weren't sure if they would be able to secure funding for a FT for a second year. Hence, the 7-month contract.

But then they were able to get the funding so they signed me on for a new 1-year contract. The wording in the contract doesn't allow for any exclusion from the round-trip airfare bonus if the initial contract is less than a year. It is, in fact, the standard GEPIK 2007 contract and says that if I renew for one year, I get the round-trip airfare (up to 75% of the cost of a Korean Air Lines econo seat as they stated it in the 2007 contract) plus 14 days extra leave INCLUSIVE of weekends and holidays.

The mistake they made if they wanted to take away my airfare renewal bonus was that they didn't bother to re-write that provision. So, I took the job with the expectation (silly me, this is Korea) that the contract meant what it says and that I was promised this renewal bonus.

I've already consulted with a free contract expert about this at a free clinic, and he said I was right and they are wrong. When I talked to him about getting that opinion in writing, he said that I must be careful not to piss them off and seeing a written opinion from an outside expert might piss them off and have some negative effects on my employment there as I have 10 more months on my current contract there.

Anyway, I figure one of less atagonistic approaches to resolving this impass in my favor would be to get my GEPIK rep, Dain Bae, to be pro-active with them. Hence, one of the things I was asking about in particular in this post was whether any of you have had any positive experiences with her acting on your behalf in a disagreement with your school.

Savvy? (I love saying, "Savvy?" Something I've picked up from Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribbean trilogy. Very Happy

)

losing_touch · Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Location: Ulsan - I think!

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

I don't think it matters the duration. It's what the contract says. You should get all the entitlements the contract provides. If they didn't want to pay the airfare or give you the extra time off they should have taken those parts out or changed the wording to "if the employee works a full year" or smething like that.

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

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:26 pm Post subject:

losing_touch · Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Location: Ulsan - I think!