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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 1:28 pm Post subject: Seoul:Kickbacks rampant in driver hires |
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Does this happen in other industries, too?
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2977595&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1
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companies, unions sell coveted driver jobs on capital area routesSept 14,2013 A 45-year-old tax driver, Gong, went looking for a job as a bus driver in January. Getting one turned out to be a quite competitive undertaking; there was a glut of applicants seeking the job because it offered better-than-average wages and job security until retirement age, something that cannot be taken for granted these days.
Gong agreed to a backdoor deal to get put on the payroll, working with a manager of a bus company in Seoul. The manager demanded 3 million won ($2,800), saying 2 million won was for him and the rest for a worker at the company’s personnel office.
After thinking the matter over, he gave the money to the manager and was hired as a driver of that bus company a few weeks later.
“I had no choice but to give the money, because the middleman told me that many people like me were seeking the job,” Gong told the JoongAng Ilbo. “After I joined the company, my coworkers told me that many people had paid more than 3 million won to be hired.”
Corruption in recruiting for Seoul’s city bus drivers seems never to end. Company managers and labor union leaders at bus companies are receiving kickbacks in return for helping people get hired as drivers.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office has arrested a 45-year-old local bus company boss for receiving 3 million won to 5 million won each when he hired drivers.
A 57-year-old union officer at a bus company was booked without detention by the Dobong Police Precinct for receiving 26 million won in kickbacks from four people for helping them get their jobs.
Driving a bus has become a popular job because working conditions, especially wages, are quite good. The average salary for a driver with three years experience or more is 41 million won, which is twice the average income of a taxi driver.
In 2004, the Seoul Metropolitan Government revised its management of city bus lines to improve working conditions.
Under the new system, bus companies’ business transparency has been improved because the city government manages routes, bus intervals and the total number of buses being operated, while also overseeing the calculation of fare revenue and ensuring that drivers are paid on time both in wages and severance payments when they retire or resign.
One cause of the deep-rooted corruption is that bus companies do not need to hire drivers regularly. The total number is almost stable, so only retiring drivers need to be replaced every year.
Only 639 drivers were hired by 66 city bus lines last year; there are about 16,000 bus drivers in the city.
“In such circumstances, officials in charge of hiring people have huge power,” a bus driver named Park, 46, told the JoongAng Ilbo.
“It is very hard to crack down on those irregularities because it is hard to expect people giving bribes report their own corruption to the police. There are very few drivers reporting such problems, and the ones that do are all fired by the company later.”
Labor unions allegedly play a leading role in the kickbacks as well. When someone asks a labor union leader for help and the labor boss passes along a recommendation to the company, the regulations say the company must consider that “advice” during the recruitment process. Kickbacks, then, are often offered and accepted.
“Some labor union officials take 30 to 40 percent of the kickbacks given by a job seeker in collusion with company managers,” a bus driver surnamed Jeong, 57, told the JoongAng Ilbo.
“The current recruitment system doesn’t allow the city government to oversee the hiring process, a role that they should have,” said Professor Kim Pil-soo of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Daelim University.
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misher
Joined: 14 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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Uhhh paying for jobs s not exactly uncommon here. Take it for what it is but this is what I saw.
A) Ex-gf applied to newspaper/publishing company (not saying which one) and the competition was pretty stiff. She was NOT qualified for the job but was offered it anyway as long as she fronted 40 million KRW. Where that money would go who knows. Anyway after a consultation with daddy, he knew the game and said it was a waste of money.
B) ex-gf's best friend basically bombed her KSAT and could only manage to get into a college in kyonggido. She eventually did a masters at a small Seoul uni in real estate management ( whatever that means ) and applied for lecturing jobs. Long story short, Daddy was rich and 300 million won was enough so he could say his daughter was a 'professor' at a Seoul uni.
C) Korean friend of mine that I first met in Vancouver had his parents pay 30 million won to secure a job at a well known confectionary company. His reasoning? It would be a job that he could have until he was 55 and the pressure was on to get employed. If it meant paying off someone bigwig in HR so be it. Everyone else does it anyway.
Now I believe that this practice isn't everywhere but it is more common than you would think. ESPECIALLY n academia. |
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waynehead
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Location: Jongno
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| Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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Yup, still par for the course here in many places.
Experienced drivers make 41 million a year? Not bad. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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A few years ago there was a man in Jeolla-do (I can't recall if it was north or south Jeolla) who committed suicide after not being able to get a lecturer position at a university. He was qualified, but of the two schools he applied to, one demanded 130 million won, and the other 90 million.  |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 6:27 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, a lot of countries around the world practice this. Especially third world countries. But, Korea is a developed country so this ought to stop. Bus driver might be a good deal. But, for other jobs the bribe isn't worth it as you wouldn't make enough to earn back the money you gave away. Anyways, if folks starting recording these offers and passing it on to the police or media, some of those @$$ h@ts ought to be going to jail or fined for a similiar amount to what they are asking for in bribe payment. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:45 am Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Anyways, if folks starting recording these offers and passing it on to the police or media, some of those @$$ h@ts ought to be going to jail or fined for a similiar amount to what they are asking for in bribe payment. |
Whistleblowers often have their lives ruined when reporting corruption, and most of the people in a position to report it (bus driver applicants, for example) aren't exactly in a position to risk their careers. I'm all in favour of strong whistleblower protection to remove the culture of fear that exists around this kind of thing, but without that... |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:28 am Post subject: |
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It is/was pretty rampant in private-public school. Supposedly at one of my EPIK schools most of the full-time teachers that are over-40, who didn't have some kind of "connection", had to cough up 10-million-ish to get hired full-time.
The movie 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' kind of touches on the subject of bribing to get a job. |
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J Rock
Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Location: The center of the Earth, Suji
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:22 am Post subject: |
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If I was in this situation and the HR guy asked for money, the first thing that would come to mind is, "What if I give him the money and he still doesnt get me the job?" Whats to guarantee he's not going to run off with the money?
With my luck I would pay and the guy would retire the next day and run away with my cash! |
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Nester Noodlemon
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:25 am Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
It is/was pretty rampant in private-public school. Supposedly at one of my EPIK schools most of the full-time teachers that are over-40, who didn't have some kind of "connection", had to cough up 10-million-ish to get hired full-time.
The movie 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' kind of touches on the subject of bribing to get a job. |
It may not be rampant, but I hear that it still happens in the public schools. I asked one of my co-teachers, that I had become close friends with, how did the young 25 year old English teacher get her full-time job. He laughed and said her father had money and it was known that her job was bought although it was kept quite. I was curious because she had a degree in geography and hadn't studied in the educational field. I suppose her English ability was okay but I'm sure there were candidates out there with degrees in English Education. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| Nester Noodlemon wrote: |
| jvalmer wrote: |
It is/was pretty rampant in private-public school. Supposedly at one of my EPIK schools most of the full-time teachers that are over-40, who didn't have some kind of "connection", had to cough up 10-million-ish to get hired full-time.
The movie 'Barking Dogs Never Bite' kind of touches on the subject of bribing to get a job. |
It may not be rampant, but I hear that it still happens in the public schools. I asked one of my co-teachers, that I had become close friends with, how did the young 25 year old English teacher get her full-time job. He laughed and said her father had money and it was known that her job was bought although it was kept quite. I was curious because she had a degree in geography and hadn't studied in the educational field. I suppose her English ability was okay but I'm sure there were candidates out there with degrees in English Education. |
It's a private school, because for the last 10-ish years all new full-time teachers in the public system are tested. And they literally take the top x number test scores to be hired full-time in any given year. The reason was to get rid of bribing for jobs. However, private schools can hire whoever they want, and the education office just approves it.
There are two types of public schools. Public schools that are government run, and private schools that still get funding from the government but get a lot more leeway of how they are run (result of Korea's not so long ago past poverty). But both essentially public schools as far as students are concerned. And veteran teachers from private schools can go into the public system under certain circumstances. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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| So, it does happen in public schools with teachers? That explains how some of them got their jobs. You know which ones, too. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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| dairyairy wrote: |
| So, it does happen in public schools with teachers? That explains how some of them got their jobs. You know which ones, too. |
In the past yes. But currently in private schools, it still occurs in some schools. |
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No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| 41 million after three years, man I've been at my job for nearly six and make less than that. My undergrad was 35 million and masters was another 15. It took me 50 million in educational expenses to get my job. These guys only pay 3 million for a life long job with benefits. It sounds like a good deal to me. |
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| So the premises of many S. Korean dramas such as the 'Coffee Prince' and others are not correct? |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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| matthews_world wrote: |
| So the premises of many S. Korean dramas such as the 'Coffee Prince' and others are not correct? |
What premise is that? |
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