Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tonyvu]

when you're teaching intensives in a given month, does the excess hours/classes you teach from your normal schedule count towards overtime?

[polonius]

I am sure it is different for everyone, but what we do at my Hagwon is the following:

Teachers are contracted for 30 50 minute periods per week. We try to give them 28. For this intensive session, we had our teachers come in early. And we paid our teachers for every extra class that we gave them in the intensive session, regardless of if they were under their contracted 30 classes per week. We paid them 23,000 won per extra 50 minute class.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Overtime, as per the law, is time and a half although your contract may stipulate that the OT rate is a certain amount like 20, 25, etc. thousand Won per hour. If your contract states that your schedule is something like 2 to 9, MWF, for 30 classes per week, then you should get OT for anything over 30 classes per week (or anything over 6 classes per day because that's really how it should work) and anything outside you 2 to 9 schedule (anything before 2 or after 9 or on the weekend. If OT is not mentioned in your contract then you can negotiate with your employer. You could always negotiate with your employer for a better rate no matter what's in your contract since you have the right to refuse OT (maybe more so if it's way outside your schedule).

That's how I look at it. And it's per class, not up to the 60th minute unless you signed that away.

[wylies99]

OP, it should. Most hagwon teachers should get OT pay for Jan/Feb and July/Aug.

[Poemer]

In my experience, don't count on it. When I worked for Avalon our "work hours" were altered and extended during intensives to accommodate morning classes, but the school was very careful not to schedule enough "teaching hours" to put anyone into overtime. So, for example, I was expected to come in at 8am and stay until 6 or 7 pm, but I might only have classes to teach for six hours of that time. The rest of the time I was given other projects to work on (textbook writing) or expected to be at my desk prepping, all for the same salary I was paid during the non-intensive schedule. The school justified this because my "teaching hours" did not exceed the 120 hours a month. Total bs, and totally unethical, to make people work 9, 10, 11 hour days for the same pay they usually get for a 6 or 7 hour day.

Make sure you ask current employees about how things work at a school during intensives, because it varies from place to place.