Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wiganer]

We should take a tip from the Koreans when it comes to abuses of contract when working outside of our country. Call out on racism like they do and actually walk out on bad employers who break the contract and disregard the rules. Remember folks, when you stay on amid abuses of labour law and the contract that you both signed - your Korean boss is laughing in your face. Would a Korean take the crap most of you lot seem to take? Not on your nelly!


The 13 newly trained South Korean flight attendants for the soon-to-be-opened Seoul route of Finnair has declined the contract offered by the airline, and all the trainees have already left Finland to return to their home country.

The spokesman of Finland's flight attendant association (SLSY) Mauri Koskenniemi says that the trainees feel that they have been conned by the airline and accuse them of racist discrimination. Koskenniemi says in the article published in Helsingin Sanomat (one of the main newspapers in Finland) that the airline has lured the new FAs to join Finnair work force by giving them a wrong impression of the contract.

When Finnair was asked about the situation, the chief of cabin crew department Kati Lehesmaa admitted that the South Korean trainees have indeed all quit and that the whole training "has gone terribly wrong". The airline, however, does not take all the blame, but says that the recruitment firm (ANC) used in South Korea to recruit the FAs has given false, too rosy, picture of the contract the FAs would be signing with the airline. She does admit, however, that the airline is also to blame: " we should have gone through the contract in detail right in the beginning", she said in the article.

Apparently during recruitment the chosen people were told that they would be signing a permanent contract, when again Finnair was ready to sign only a contract for two years, in order to see how the route succeeds. The trainees were also promised by ANC a monthly fixed salary plus "flight add" depending on the amount of flights done, when again Finnair wanted to pay only this "flight add".

Koskenniemi says: "There are dozens of Asian crew working on Finnair's Asia flights. The first Japanese FAs were hired over 20 years ago. The Asian crew are not members of SLSY, though the association has tried for years to make it possible for them to join the union, which would mean the Finnish contract would be applied to the Asian crew as well."

Lehesmaa says that the opening of the route will now be handled with all-Finnish crews. The airline is in process of recruiting new South Korean FAs, as the they see it is vital to have local crew members on Asian flights, due to service and safety aspects.

The new route goes online June the 2nd.

The article, in Finnish, can be found here: http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/Fi...4tt%C3%A4en+kotiinsa/1135236510375

For what I had understood is, that the Finnair Asian crew members were indeed hired with the same contract as the Finnish counter parts. Apparently not. Not a good thing this situation, in any way, however!













http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3990785/

[Died By Bear]

In order for that to work, English teachers would have to be able to act unanimously.

[Fox]

Who is this directed at? I suspect most of us working in Korea are treated well and our contracts are not violated. My contract has been followed to the letter with regards to my benefits (even, one time, at the cost of a little face to my co-teacher when she had misinterpretted it and had to call an EPIK representative for clarification), while they've actually been very relaxed about demanding I live up to the specifics of my side (giving me fewer than the maximum total teaching hours, been very generous about allowing to me to engage in personal, off-campus business during school hours without, taken my side in the rare case of a parental complaint, etc). I suspect most people's situations are a lot closer to mine than to this image you seem to have of the average person's experience.

[Senior]

So, the flight attendants got free training and then walked? Seems pretty under handed to me.

[Junior]

[ThingsComeAround]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Patrick Bateman]

Other then the calls of racism, I'd say the South Korean flight attendants are in the right.

I wonder if the contract they received was translated into Korean. It sounds to me like it's the recruiters fault for giving such false information.

And as one poster said earlier, I've had quite a nice experience with Koreans honoring my contracts.

[wiganer]

[wiganer]

[wiganer]

[Junior]

[Adventurer]

[Adventurer]