Korean Job Discussion Forums

[2megabite]

Any advice welcome on how successful, laborious, it is to claim compensation from my hagwon boss refusing to pay me 70% pay after telling me I couldn't come to work because the temporary worker was still there.

Short story: fractured arm, missed 1 week due to it, ready and willing to go back to work the following week (only 3 weeks left on my 12month contract) but was told I'd been replaced and could fly back home sooner. I refused that 'offer' as I had plans beyond my contract and threatened to report him to the Labor Dep. we made a deal where I would start that friday and finish said contract, on full pay. Now finished and he is refusing to pay up the Monday - Thursday he said I couldn't work.

The Migration department say I am entitled to 70%, and have informed him but he is being a stubborn git. I even offered 2 days unpaid as a compromise but he isn't budging. My only problem is I leave next Friday although I have people to act as a delegate for me if needs be.

Anyone with any advice, info?

Thanks

[buymybook]

I'll assume you've been paid severance, pension and all other salary since you didn't mention it? You are leaving soon and plan to sue for 4 days work? Do yourself a favor and forget about it, I know it may be difficult but try. Enjoy your last days here and don't do anything stupid before you leave. If you get back home safely be thankful and consider yourself lucky.

[ChinaBoy]

I'd be as nice as possible and take the four-day hit just hoping and praying that I'd get the severance and final pay. Getting upset and trying to sue someone isn't going to make him more likely to pay those things

[jadarite]

I don't see how the hagwon owner should pay because the teacher got injured. Did the accident which caused the injury occur at the hagwon? Would this fall under some "Worker's Compensation" clause? If so, where is it written? You would need to file some claim instead of suing your boss.

[sojourner1]

Did you have paid sick days? Did you get your severance, flight, and pension? If so, just go and enjoy the rest of your life and stay away from hagwons. Hagwons not only present a stressful lifestyle, but almost always find a way to screw you out of $300 to $500 in the end if not more. If not screwing on pay, flight, or pension, then they might not had remitted taxes to the tax service. Directors are almost always looking to pocket something to cover up their own financial management mistakes, because the school owners are hard cord stingy and strict on the directors. I remember how my hagwon owner was a rich b*tch with all these diamonds hanging on her and filthy rich, but so greedy and selfish. She did absolutely no work; only showed her presence hold us all more accountable for P&L. Being rich or owning a business is a license to be unfair with people be it Korea or America so they make life unnecessarily hard on those working for peanuts by pressuring their managers and directors. It's hagwash. I still yet to find a company I really believe in and love working for. My school owner was demanding of my director when it came to P&L to the point she wouldn't provide supplies, very little heat, and short pay by small amounts. Those rich owners don't consider nor realize nor care how brutal money really is for us working for them. It's a terrible education concept or edutainment babysitting system, but I guess they have to keep their kids busy and out of trouble while at work all day and out with their boss all evening many nights. Grandparents seem to play little part in helping with children as much as they could or should as they don't seem to exhibit that warm grand parents role we Westerners are familiar with and enjoyed as kids. Just stay away from hagwons and let the Korean system do what it will. If you want to be a teacher, go PS, if it requires a certification in the country you want to teach in, then go for it instead of settling for less money and more stress of privately owned for profit schools. I learned my lesson.

Sounds like your hagwon owner and/or director was trying to pull an 11th hour on you by taking advantage of your situation of getting hurt hoping you'd wimp out and leave early.

[Scotticus]

Not sure if you've ever had any experience in the K-legal system, but....

I'm still waiting on the system to get me my 3.5m from an employer who stiffed me... TWO YEARS AGO. You really have to figure out if 4 days pay is worth the headaches and bullshit you're going to have to put up with.

[2megabite]

Thanks for the info.

Quick update: He basically gave with one hand and took with the other. After talking to the migration department here in Suwon they said he was liable to pay 70% of the 4 days he told me not to come in. Not big money but he would only agree to pay 2 of those days despite me saying I'd take him to the labour department. He paid up in the end but added a 'workers insurance' deduction which he said he legally had to deduct 9000w from my wage each month but he usually paid it himself. Since I "didn't trust him" he stung me with 12months worth at just over 100,000w. he also maneaged to find a further 350,000w of 'cancellation' fees for my internet etc, which I'll be getting checked out by the migration department today, as I got him to itemise it all.

But basically I got 3 sick days, the 11 working days of the month I worked paid up plus 2 70% days and he had already paid severance and my deposit. I don't think I'll push any more as most of you point out I am not going to revolutionise the system for the sake of a couple hundred pound. But the thick mentality of the guy frustrates the hell out of me so if I can appoint a delegate to get the rest of my cash I may just show him a taste of his own medicine.

The accident was outside of work by the way, which i think is what pissed him off the most as he said if I'd done it at work he could have claimed insurance and we'd both have got paid. Obviously accident in the west and Korea have seperatye meanings.

Thanks again for your input.