Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mondragon6]

At my previous Hagwan, my director was forced into providing a pension. When he did, my head Korean teacher said that he would match my monthly contributions. Instead he took out the full 9% from my paycheck and wired it to the pension office pretending he had contributed as well. I only found this out later because he also reported my salary as less than what it really was. Now that I'm at a new job in Korea I want to get that money back, but I'm just not sure how.

The pension office said that I would have to sue him. I'm wondering does anybody know of an alternative way to retrieve this money? He has also done this to other foreign teachers at my school. Has anyone heard of this situation before and if so, what can be done?

[OiGirl]

I went to the labor board with a similar problem (just not paying into pension at all.) The labor board said sorry, we can't give you what he never gave us. And oh yeah, he's a bad man.

When you leave Korea, you should be able to get your pension money, I suppose depending where you're from, but good lucking getting your former boss to pay what he should have paid in the past.

[Skyblue]

Didn't you notice he was skimming a few extra percent off your paycheque?

[OculisOrbis]

[mondragon6]

The pension office recommended going to the labor office for help. They said they couldn't help with this type of problem. My recruiter recommended putting pressure on the Franchise President/CEO since it's happened to so many employees at this branch. Any ideas?

[OculisOrbis]

How much proof do you have that your employer did this? Pay stubs, copy of your old contract, bank statements, etc?

If you have all of those and your boss was underreporting your salary, it is the pension offices responsibility. Smaller local offices will not hesitate to give you any excuse to brush you off and prevent you from making them work. Go to the provincial office, then up to the national office if the provincial office is useless, too. (Obviously, I mean you can call them). Get the names of the people you speak with the each level of the pension office - the lower levels that brushed you off will get spanked by the higher level office that actually takes your claim seriously. Once the pension office does their job, your boss will also have to pay what he owes and will also receive a hefty fine.

You can also try consulting with this law firm, but it wouldnt be worth your while unless you had a lot of teachers that got screwed on board. You need to pay a retainer plus about 30% of your recovery.

http://www.k-labor.com/tiki-index.phphttp://www.k-labor.com/tiki-index.php

You can also file a claim in the equivalent of small claims court for next to nothing, but I have no experience in that so I cant give any advice.

If you dont have any kind of paper trail, you can basically forget about that money.

[mondragon6]

Thanks for the great reply, I'll put together what I have and maybe talk to small claims court. Really appreciate all the help!