Korean Job Discussion Forums

[napolifam]

Can someone tell me my options....

I am breaking my contract with EPIK...I gave the 60 days notice as required by the contract and am breaking the contract during summer break....my contract initially ended the end of september.

My wife also teaches with EPIK and will be continuing and wants to renew. We have been told by the province that they are waiting for an official letter from her school and her school said they already told the province they want to rehire her but that the province is pissed because I'm breaking my contract. I'm breaking it because I was offered a job at a University.

I told the province that we would pay my share of the last months rent to the province since they already paid it. Then I got this email from the coordinator:

Dear Thomas,
I'm so sorry but the Education Board can't give you a release letter.
If you want to send letter to [head of program], you can use my email and I'll forward it to him.
I already forwarded your emails to me to [head of program]. Actually, we are facing a very complicated
situation about your accomodation. I don't know how to convince my superior.
I'm sorry.


and my reply:

Could you please explain the complication with the accomodation situation?

There would be a little over one month left on my contract and I said that I would pay the province the rent it would lose.

I gave the 60 days notice I was contractually obligated to give to break the contract so I can't see why a complication with my accomodation would be a substantial reason not to give me a release letter. I am also breaking my contract during the summer break not during school time.

If the complication has to do with furniture, I don't understand because the province would provide it whether there was one of us or two us teaching.

Please explain to me the situation so I can better understand it and please explain why the accomodation has the power to negate a release letter.

Sincerely,

Thomas


What can I do? Can they not give me a release letter if i gave 60 days notice? wouldnt they rather a new teacher start in the beginning of the year?

any help would be great

[lifeinkorea]

I am in the same situation. However, instead of me quitting and needing a release letter, I would transfer my visa to another school. I haven't decided to do this yet because another part of the deal would be giving up severance.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

The "problem" re. accommodation probably has to do with the key money which would have been invested for 1 year. Your leaving constitutes teacher gone but money still wound up with housing (this is where half of the NT budget goes, though not necessarily all goes to a landlord if you catch my drift)

This makes it complicated and why you're not getting your LOR !!

[Scamps]

Why don't you leave Korea and hand your ARC card to immigration at the airport? Then come right back and let the new school get you a new visa and ARC card.

[napolifam]

How long would i have to wait before reentering? Or could I just come back on a tourist visa and then wait until my E2 is cancelled....wouldnt i have to wait until my visa which ends in october expries before getting a new one?

[Scamps]

I think as soon as you hand in your card and leave it's cancelled automatically. But you'd better ask someone else more in the know about this. You could come back on a tourist visa the very next day.

[sfreeman]

[iggyb]

I have not seen this in the labor law yet, but some seemingly knowledgeable veterans have said that if you give your notice to the school and to immigration, then you don't need the LOR after that period passes.

I'd call immigration or get a Korean I trust to call and ask.

If your contract is ending at the end of September, then the LOR will be a mute point at that time anyway. The question then would be whether the university is willing to sign you to a contract and wait for that period to pass before getting a visa for you.

The labor laws are online in English in pdf form if you google for them...

[OculisOrbis]

if you are getting a new visa, you dont need the LOR.

you need a new set of documents and a new employer to apply to sponsor you and then you wait about week for your visa issuance number. leave korea and get your new visa. for japan, it is a two day process. drop off your papers day 1 and pick them up the following day and return to korea.

to transfer your visa or change employers without a visa run you must have an LOR. your current employer has no obligation to provide you with an LOR or permission to change employers.

if you gave the required notice then they are obligated to cancel your current visa and then you may apply for a new one.

if they refuse to cancel your visa then you are their property until your current visa expires or you leave korea and turn in your ARC at immigration and they cancel it.

[frankly speaking]

I don't see how you are breaking your contract. You are canceling your contract. In the contract it is written that you can leave the school if you give 60 days notice. That legally cancels the contract. If you followed that constraint, then you canceled it and not broke it.

As stated above, you just leave to Japan and come back with a new visa. Not a big deal at all.

I don't get the problem with the apartment. They are not allowing you to live with your wife? I guess they can legally do that, but sounds really rude.

[The Bobster]

One of the effed-up things about the E2 visa is that even if the teacher follows the contract and provides notice as required, the employer is not legally required to give the LOR. They don't have to if they don't want to.

I think they are peeved that a good teacher is leaving, and they are making things difficult hoping you'll stay - the (typical) idiocy of that is that you are far less likely to stay someplace and teach well for them if they are making you feel held against your will. See, this kind of thing probably works with Korean employees, because the norm is to never question authority at any time for any reason.

I like the guy's suggestion that you leave the country, cancel your ARC and come back as a tourist, then get hooked into your uni gig. Take a ferry to Fukuoka and come back the next day.

[TheUrbanMyth]

Since the OP's last post in this thread was July 1 I would assume he's figured it out by now since he's had upwards of a month to do so.

[napolifam]

Done and Done....

I went and canceled my visa with a rep from my school and the same day I filed for a visa issuance number with the university....also a local background check was ok for me...

On another note...

I invited all the english teachers to my place for dinner, I was gonna cook for them. My wrangler picked the day because he said they had a meeting that day. The day came and I called him to see if he ws still coming and he told me that he was going to get drinks with another teacher who also was invited because he was the boyfriend of another english teacher...I told him they both could come and he said he couldn't...mind u, this is after he picked the day. As I was messaging another teacher she called and told me she couldnt come and neither could the other teachers...they said maybe next week.Ha! Cha. right.

Broken Promises really hurt my feelings...