Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Countrygirl]

Sorry for the dramatic title, but I'm just so pissed off right now that my hands are shaking.

When I first started at this school, everytime I had a holiday the school would take my overtime hours, put it into the 22 regular teaching hours, and claim that they didn't have to pay me overtime. Pissed me off...and I know that this pissed a lot of teachers off...but what could I do. That was how to system was.

Then my co-teacher found a loop-hole that said if the parents paid for the afterschool class then I would get paid for my overtime regardless of holidays or sick days.

This was over 1 1/2 years ago. I started getting paid for overtime regardless of holidays, my co-teacher moved on, and now I am on my 3rd contract with this school.

Today the VP decides that she wants to start again putting my overtime hours into my regular teaching hours and not paying for them. Not only that, she wants my co-teacher to go back to last semester and see how much they might have "overpaid" me.

Thankfully, my first co-teacher photocopied the page for me which said that I should get paid despite holidays. But what a stupid hassle.

I'd like to ask other GEPIKr's out there, do you also lose your overtime pay when holidays and sick days occur? I haven't heard any complaints on the board lately, so I thought this practice had ended.

[ThingsComeAround]

Hrm... that is a shyte situation.
I am aware that one of my OT classes are paid by the children. The school kind of fudges the numbers so they push me to teach an extra hour (no pay) but then I get the money from the other children anyway (?)

My situation: The parents over pay and I have to teach twice to get that money

Unfortunately this is the principals idea and no one will challenge him. Maybe next year I can push for some new "classes" and get some of that GEPIK reserve liquid

[Countrygirl]

I just called GEPIK and found out that taking the overtime hours and making them apply to regular working hours is still a very active practice. It doesn't matter if the parents pay or not. I also just found out that the parents are not paying this year because the school got a special grant, so maybe that puts me at a disadvantage.

I did find out though, via the labour board, that if the school has been paying me for my overtime this entire time that they cannot take back any money from me and they will have to continue paying me for overtime because the holidays are now considered "paid" holidays. I also think that holidays are considered paid holidays in the GEPIK contract as well.

I don't know how this will play out in the end but I am sick of this. If they start taking away my overtime, I'll be quitting at the 6 month mark. I'd rather be putting my energy into building a career rather than fighting for my money every friggin paycheck.

[Patong Dong]

Ok, so can you help me out here? I came into a PS position through the school and have not attended any GEPIK orientation events so often find other GEPIK teachers know a lot more than I do on how the program works.

I lost out on a number of overtime classes over Chuseok for example. Because they didn't happen they don't count towards my overtime pay.

Are you saying that if regularly scheduled overtime classes don't happen because of a holiday that I should still be able to include them in my overtime count?

[Countrygirl]

[D.D.]

It's very simple on this one. You are not required to teach after school classes as they are an option. They are scamming you and trying to take even a bigger cut of the money. Say no pay and I don't teach the class end of story. Sorry that they do that to you as it is a scummy practice.

30,000 for 40-45 minutes should be the min. anyone teachers for.

To all the new teachers out their: any classes after 3:20 are called after school classes. Any classes that are not regular classes taught after lunch in an elementary school are after school classes. Don't think because they are in the regular working day that you shouldn't get paid for them.

The school knows they are scamming you, so don't give in even if your hours are less than 22.

[katsu]

For me personally I have 20 hours in the morning M-F but then i have to make up my 2 extra classes in the afternoon...sometimes at 2pm, sometimes at 3:20...don't get overtime for those even though they are in the afternoon as i have to make up my classes...
there are some weeks where there are blanks in my morning schedule...i.e i'm missing one or two classes cuz my co-teacher didn't schedule them in, and then she makes me do additional classes in the afternoon, or takes away from any paid overtime after i do 22 hours...
my co-teacher said non of the children pay for any of the classes, although i teach children from other school who come to my school in the afternoons.
I have never had one school holiday at our school, except for national holidays. Even this past chusok had to go in on thursday and monday...most ppl i know who are gepik teachers they had those days off...
I only get paid for what i teach...so even if i have scheduled overtime but there is a school event my co teacher says i can't get paid for that cuz i didn't teach, even though it was scheduled but the children didn't show up...

this is one big problem with gepik...there should be a standard for all schools and teachers under the gepik contract..as we all get paid the same but some of us have longer holidays, or more off days...i contacted the gepik office on numerous occasions and spoke to ha rim lee but she had never solved any of my problems, never even attempted to..the only thing she would say is "it is up to your school and principal"...so glad she no longer there...perhaps too many ppl complained about her...

[Countrygirl]

The new girl at GEPIK is Ivy and she felt it was necessary to call my school after I called her. I guess she wanted to make sure that my school knew that I shouldn't get paid.

She informed my handler that a foreign teacher had to pay back money to his school due to a similar situation. Sorry, but that story in itself doesn't convince me that I should be giving my school any money.

She also said that none of the foreign teachers complain about this therefore why am I making such a big deal about it.

Judging by the responses on this board, it really does seem like many GEPIK FTs don't really care about receiving their overtime money. Are you guys so overpaid and swimming in cash that you don't really care about losing hundreds of won per paycheck every time there is a holiday or you get sick?

[lifeinkorea]

Maybe I don't understand the OP's situation, but it doesn't look like they are scamming you. I had one hagwon try to get me to sign another contract with a public school which would divide my pay and they said they would pay the remaining amount after the public school paid me. I flat out refused to do this, but another teacher who came to the school after me took the offer and he has been paid regularly. Another teacher would do "overtime" only to be explained later why she wasn't entitled to overtime pay. They basically rationalized hours not taught and said the overtime was actually just makeup classes. She then replied, "Well, ok I won't do overtime then when asked". I don't know if that made the hagwon change their ways or not, but I got out of that jungle of a job.

In your case, are you paid on time? Even if you teach 20 hours only, are you paid the regular 22 hour salary?

When it's not a regular work day, you only have to teach 20 hours, not 22. You get the base salary for 20 hours. After that, you get paid overtime.

When I worked with a GEPIK school, they had me teach Mon-Thu for the 20 hours. Then they required me to come in on Friday. I had an additional agreement to get 300,000 more in overtime with the head English teacher, which she scheduled. However, the new head English teacher wasn't fully aware of it. So, whenever I didn't get paid for the overtime, I had to explain it to them. Actually, my co-teacher did.

The point I am trying to make is that you shouldn't look at overtime as part of your total salary. You should really look at your pay as 2 parts, your BASE salary and your OVERTIME pay. It's easier to make a case with your school this way. If you combine them, then you are going to surely get screwed as the female teacher I mentioned at the hagwon.

So, my verdict, if you didn't actually teach more than 20 hours then you aren't entitled to overtime pay. You get the base salary, nothing more. If you had to go to school and just sit in the teacher's room then you should at least argue you were there for those hours. However, I don't think you will get more money out of them. A better case would be to be allowed to simply leave earlier. I am assuming you were given those days off, so you didn't even teach 1 hour in that case. Work = pay. Work, then expect the pay. No work, no pay. Sorry, but that's the real world.

[D.D.]

It's fustrating reading this thread because it's such an easy concept but people don't seam to get it.

Don't use the term overtime or overtime pay in relation to after school classes. This is called after school classes.

Overtime pay is pay for working extra time and has nothing to do with after school classes.

A regular class is a class that happens in the regular schedule ie. it starts the first week of school and ends in the last week. The students sitting in a regular class see the same set of faces in your class as they would another subject.

So if you divide it into 3 parts.

1. regular classes
2. after school classes.
3. overtime

Keep them seperate and it's very clear.

1. You can have up to 22 regular classes and if they don't have 22 classes for you that is their tough luck. They can give you stupid things to do like teaching the teachers to fil in your 22 hours.

2. After school classes are classes that a few students choose to take on top of their regular classes. ie. you will see those students more than once per week and not all their class will be there.

There is no debating the fact the fact that these classes are optional and are also paid at a rate between 20000 to 100000 ( yes I have made 100000 in a public school for 40 minutes of teaching before.) After school classes can be during your normal working hours or after your normal hours.

3. overtime is in most contracts as some really low pay number such as 6000 an hour and is there for events that might extend your working hours.


Someone who wants to manipulate you will ignore the divisions I have stated above and will try to blend or chop and change to take the after school money for themselves. Even if the students are not paying extra the government sends extra cash for after school classes. If they can afford to pay me 30000 the government must be sending at least 30000 per class.

Koreans will try and do so many things to trick you and pretend they are a good Christian and there is no extra money involved. Chinese people will at least cut you in for your share when they is extra cash around. Koreans like to deny the fact of how cash really moves in this country.

So stand up for yourself using the 3 divisions I showed you above. If you cave in you just make it harder for the rest of us.

No is my favorite word and then the cash flows in after you say no to their attempts to manipulate you. If they want the extra classes they will pay for them.

Good luck.

[Boodleheimer]

why would anyone do after-school classes if this is the case? stop doing them!!!!

[kabrams]

My school did this:

I have 24 classes. If a class is canceled during the week, I lose one hour of overtime because that class never happened (although I was in school).

One week, two classes were canceled, so I lost 2 hours of overtime.

But my co-teacher told me that it doesn't matter if classes are canceled, you are guaranteed 22 hours automatically. So the two extra classes that I teach still count as overtime.

But the person at my school who is our GEPIK person/lisason but NOT my coteacher says that it would not be overtime because I'm "making up" the lost classes with the two extra classes.

But I'm not making up the lost class, I'm teaching an entirely separate class than the one that got canceled. And sometimes the classes are canceled because "the homeroom teacher wants to do something with them", or they are taking an exam.

Who is right?

[Rusty Shackleford]

[Countrygirl]

D.D., you are right to more accurately label it after school class pay. That is what they are not paying me, and it looks like, 50% of FT's who are working at GEPIK schools.

Boodleheimer, the GEPIK contract says that FT's have to do up to 6 hours of overtime if asked and that we will be paid a base rate of 20,000 won per teaching hour. I know that some people say that we can refuse to teach, but I read the contract as saying it's a requirement and I like the extra money. I didn't think it was a fight worth fighting if I got paid.

lifeinkorea, I worked therefore I should get paid. I've worked in the real world for many years and I've never had to make up my holiday hours or teaching hours during the work week. How is this a holiday? Otherwise, it would technically be better for me to call in sick on weeks that I have holidays..my pay would be the same. But I don't think that is ethical so I don't.

To my schools credit, they don't understand why I don't get paid, either. It is the VP who is trying to save the money and I believe that she is doing this because she is afraid the inspector will come, look at the books and say that our school has to pay back money.

The fact is, Korean schools can be quite creative when it comes to paperwork and money. I'll wait and see if something can be worked out, otherwise I'm off to the Labour Board. I won't be caving in because I really have nothing to lose.

[Bog Roll]