Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TheCanadaMissy]

Hi Everyone,
I hope I have posted this in the right section.
I am a first time teacher to Korea. And i had a few questions regarding some information in my contract.

I am wondering what former ESL teacher's positions are on the following clauses to my contract :
14. RESIGNATION
Should the employee voluntarily resign prior to the termination of the term of this agreement, the employer will not be obligated to pay the employee any part of the bonus. The employee will also be obligated to return costs associated with the recruiting of the said employee, recruiting costs, airfare, visa costs and training costs, as per the following schedule: 1 - 4 months - all costs in full. 5-11 months: total costs divided by the number of months worked in the contract.

11.8 The employee shall appear on time for all employment duties, including teaching and administrative duties. The employee shall not be absent without the employer�s permission. If the employee is more than 10 minutes late without notification, one hour rate of payment may be deducted and if one hour missed, one day deducted.

Airfare is reimbursed - tried to negotiate prepaid - but no good.
Korean income taxes (3.5%) will be withheld from the employee�s salary every month. I've seen others as high as 4.5 % . Can employers offer differtn tax %;s? In addition no pention information was mentiond. However online, i seem to see 9% as standard? What are your thoughts on this information?

The cancellation clause scares me :S but the rest of the school has checked out for me - but the contract is what is important so :S

[SeoulNate]

To question 1:

Usually you should only be reimbursing the school if you leave before the 6 month mark. It is BS after that point.

As far as being late goes, it seems to be showing up more and more in contracts and really shouldnt be too surprising. It is no different than if you worked in a corporate environment back home. How hard is it to be on time?

They will not be paying your pension. When tax is offered at a set rate like that, 3.3, 3.5, 4.5, etc then you know that they are going to register you as a subcontractor and not an employee. This can cause a whole host of other problems as well.

Get a new school.