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[geldedgoat]

Prepare for a long read...

I've been working for GEPIK for the past two years at the same school. My first year, I had a little won saved up, so I used it to place a small deposit (W5,000,000) on an officetel inside the Seoul city limits. ...and that blew. Chunks. Everywhere. (I hate officetels now.)

At the end of that year, I renewed with my school and set my sights on a better place much closer to the school. This place, however, had a much steeper deposit, to the tune of W30,000,000. I had enough for 2/3 of this and was overjoyed to discover that my school, through GEPIK, could front the rest.

And here is where everything went downhill...

My employment contract was from June 1 - May 30th (I got slammed with a surprise "Oh hey, can you work until the 31st to make everything even?" a day before my last day, but I just shrugged and agreed since I had been on good terms with most everyone thus far). However, my apartment contract was from May 21st - May 20th. Doing the math, you'll see that finishing the apartment contract on time would leave me homeless for my last ten days of employment. Fortunately, my apartment owner was excited to hear that I needed to stay a little longer, and she happily agreed to let me stick around for another month.

At this point I really started to regret procrastinating on learning Korean. I had to relay my travel plans through either my Korean girlfriend or my coteacher to the apartment owner. I very clearly expressed to everyone my desire to leave early in June, but I hadn't decided on a date yet (this was sometime during the first week of May). Somehow, this telephone game we were playing led the apartment owner to assume that I wanted to stay until the end of June... as in June 30th (putting it ten days past what would be the end of one additional month). I didn't hear about this until the next week (second week of May in case you lost count) when I decided June 11th as the day I would like to leave.

This final date was relayed (twice - girlfriend and coteacher) to the apartment owner, and she went apesh*t. She refused to budge from her already-imagined June 30th completion date and told us that if I wanted to get my money "early" (those quotes are intentional), I would have to foot the interest rate on a loan from the bank to get the entire security deposit. I didn't bite.

Eventually, over the course of the next week and a half (making this now near the end of May and the end of my employment contract), my coteacher and a member of the school's office staff managed to talk the owner into getting the money by June 20th, making that what would have been the completion date for one additional month. I agreed, realizing that not setting a date earlier was my fault.

At the same time all this was happening, another issue was brewing with my school's office staff. They knew about my plans to stay in country a little beyond my final day of employment, and they were extremely concerned about getting their furniture back that they supplied me with. They were so concerned, in fact, that they wanted to withold my severance pay and flight ticket reimbursement until the furniture was returned to them. Apparently they had heard stories of foreign teachers getting all their end-of-contract reimbursements, sticking around in their apartments a few extra days, and pawning off all the furniture before catching their flights home (hey hey, guess they have horror stories of us, too).

I was genuinely shocked that after two years of absolutely ZERO issues with anyone at the school that they would worry about me being a thief, but, after several unsuccessful days of trying to convince them their worries were unfounded, I agreed to trade a delay on just my flight reimbursement for an extra couple weeks of furniture, figuring that the value of everything my school bought for this place was roughly equivalent to a one-way ticket back home (this turned out to be wrong). My only other choice was to refuse and spend my last few weeks in Korea sleeping on the floor with no fridge to store my food, no stove and microwave to cook it with, and no TV to watch while eating (among other things). That choice, as you'll see in a few paragraphs, would have been much better.

At this point I've got an apartment owner holding on to my W20,000,000, acting extremely shady in her efforts to avoid returning it, and I've got my school holding on to two years worth of severance, a final paycheck, and a flight ticket, also acting shady. I didn't feel comfortable leaving the country (for good, mind you - four years were enough for me) with that much money in the hands of those kinds of characters, so I decided to stay until I had everything in my bank account and had it successfully transferred back to the States.

If you've been following the dates listed above and have read the GEPIK contract carefully, you'll already see how this has turned extremely bad. If you haven't, then sit back and enjoy the ride for a little longer.

So in my final week of employment, all of this has come to head. I've decided to stay until I get my security deposit from the apartment owner, and my school has agreed to let me continue to use this furniture until I move out, at which point they will reimburse my flight ticket (I'll get my last paycheck and severance pay on time, though). I told all of this to my coteacher. My coteacher told all of this to the office staff responsible for whatever this falls under. Everyone seemed happy. Everything seemed okay. Seemed, until it came time for me to buy my plane ticket, and I quickly reread the section of the contract concerning flight reimbursements to find out which airline it mentions. And here, for those who don't know the GEPIK contract, is what I found:

"If Employee completes the Term of Employment without the intention to renew and leaves Korea within 10 days from the expiration date, Employer shall provide the airfare for Employee's one way return flight to the employee's home country either in the form of reimbursement or direct purchase."

It turns out there's no mention of a specific airline like I thought, however it does have a huge kick to the balls. I only get reimbursed if I leave Korea within ten days. That would be June 10th. I was planning on leaving a couple days after June 20th.

Thankfully, I was still sitting a few days shy of that June 10th deadline, so I called my coteacher immediately and asked him about it. He said he had already talked to the office staff about that particular section of the contract and that they agreed to pay for it anyway in consideration of the difficulties I was having with my apartment and the security deposit. This made sense, because just a couple days before that my coteacher had called me up to tell me that the school's office staff recommended I leave around June 25th, just in case something unexpected happened with my deposit. So I asked him again to make sure it was okay, and he assured me it was. I had my girlfriend complete the purchase (I didn't have a Korean credit card to do it with) and email me the itinerary/receipt, which I then forwarded to my coteacher. I asked him if it was okay, and he again assured me it was.

The price of this one-way ticket, purchased directly from Korean Air, was roughly W2,300,000. Ouch. But, hey, not my problem, right? ... Right?

Fast-forward to two days ago, I'm sitting at home battling the last of my oh-so-wonderful summer fever, and I get a call from my coteacher. It turns out the school has suddenly decided to withhold my flight reimbursement and my severance pay until they get their portion of the security deposit back. (But what if they never get the security deposit? I never get my severance.) ...and I lost it. After having been jerked around so much already, by people I thought I had a very good relationship with, I couldn't take it any more. Especially not when it involved something so blatantly illegal and nonsensical. I told him that if the school's staff didn't change their minds, I would go straight to the labor board.

Well, he relayed my message, and they came back with a slightly unexpected response: they would still withhold my severance pay, they demanded immediate return of the furniture, and they would never reimburse me for my flight. Why? It turns out they suddenly rediscovered that portion of the contract I pointed out above, and decided that now, three days past that ten day deadline, would be a great time to change their minds.

I lost it. Again.

Finally bringing us to the present, today I went to the local labor office. My original plan was to meet with the school's staff and the principal, as per the arrangement my coteacher brokered the day before. However, when I called early this morning to tell my coteacher that I was about to head over, he informed me that the principal suddenly had to go on a three-day business trip. Would I like to wait until he got back? F*** no.

So at the labor office, I (through my girlfriend acting as translator) explained the whole situation. He said he could handle the severance pay issue no problem, as that was clearly illegal (today marks day 15 since the end of my employment - severance is supposed to be issued by day 14). The flight reimbursement, however, is apparently not considered a wage (curious, considering NTS has no problem taxing it as a wage) so he has no control over it. He did agree to try to scare them into giving it up, though.

After calling the school, he tells us that the school doesn't have the money right now, but they will by June 21st, the day we're supposed to be getting the security deposit. But that's still the same day they were threatening to withhold it until! Tough sh*t. And the flight? Nope, gotta call the Ministry of Education.

When I got back home, I went through a dozen or so old-but-still-posted-as-current-and-active phone contacts for GEPIK coordinators until I got in touch with Grace Hwang. I explained my situation to her, and ya know what she said? Unless the school gave their consent to extend the deadline in writing, I was SOL. Does it matter that I have my coteacher as a witness? Probably not. What might matter, however, is the fact that I bought the ticket prior to the ten-day deadline and was told that I would still get reimbursed for it. I don't get to find out until tomorrow what happens, because she was too busy today to follow-up on it. I left my coteacher's number with her and then gave my coteacher a call to let him know to expect Grace's call tomorrow.

During this conversation, I discovered why my school had such a sudden change of heart over the flight reimbursement. He asked me who I talked with, because the school also called a GEPIK coordinator to find out what their contractual obligations to me were. This coordinator apparently told them that they didn't have to honor any of their verbal agreements with me. Wanna guess who this was?
MOD EDIT

[geldedgoat]

Update:

I talked with MOD EDIT today and can now confirm that GEPIK coordinators are completely useless for anything beyond scheduling conferences. She verified with both my coteacher and the school's administration all of my claims (1. the school assured me they would pay for the flight beyond the ten-day deadline, 2. the school suggested I leave beyond the ten-day deadline with the assurance that the flight would still be paid for, 3. the school approved my ticket purchase which was made before the deadline had passed). In spite of this, she says GEPIK still can't do anything. She wouldn't even suggest where I go to next to follow up on this extremely obvious case of fraud.

Thankfully, two days ago I already talked with someone else from The Ministry of Education (or maybe Labor, I can't remember), who was much more helpful than that worthless lackey working for GEPIK. He gave me a number for free legal advice (maybe representation, too? He wasn't very clear about that), so my next stop will probably be civil court.

The principal who suddenly disappeared three days ago will be getting back this Saturday, and I have a meeting scheduled with him and the office supervisor then. I'm hoping the vice principal will sit in as well, because I've become very good friends with him over the past two years. Maybe with the threat of a law suit (that I can't begin to see how I could lose) they'll relent and uphold their agreements.

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

No use of real names, please. If they continue, there will be sanctions. Members observing violations of this warning are requested to bring them to the attention of the Mod Team by Report Post or PM.

[ThingsComeAround]

Sorry to hear that. It blows chunks that a GEPIK 'liaison' stabbed you in the back when your school was willing to play ball.

For any newbies reading this: Don't trust the coordinators. Get everything in writing. And follow-up everyday.

[shostahoosier]

[Fishead soup]

[walter235]

[sojusucks]

[thomas pars]

It really does...and and has all depended on your school and probably more importantly your vice principle. My last school was great. They paid for the return flight and the severance and there was no problem.

But I've also noticed schools getting very cheap.

I started to look for a new school while on vacation here in the States. I am being told that this particular school will only pay 1 million won
to fly me over. Never mind the contract says 1.3. And if I decide to come back before the contract starts... say more than a month..then they claim they don't have to give me a cent.

I guess it is back to the hagwon shuffle for most of us.

[natasha12]

Keep us updated on this geldegoat,you have an appointment with vice principal today,right?

I will say a short prayer for you for a good outcome!

from Natasha
Irish girl from Cork

[ThingsComeAround]

Yeah- good luck dude!

Hope everything works out

[Fishead soup]

[ThingsComeAround]

[geldedgoat]

Update (final?): Saturday my principal got back from his trip, so I went up to talk with him and the office staff with my girlfriend acting as translator (the staff had pissed my coteacher off so much that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with them). We managed to get everything sorted out, but only after going they finished going through the motions of shirking off all blame, chalking the situation up to a miscommunication (hearing this also made my coteacher royally pissed). Quite the about face, dontcha think? Well, that probably had something to do with what we did Friday...

Early in the morning, we got up and my girlfriend called MoE's main office. She explained the situation and was at first given the same response we kept hearing from GEPIK: "That sounds like an issue between the school and the teacher. We can't help." We countered with our next plan of action: a lawsuit. Lawsuits are apparently extremely scary for the MoE, because the guy immediately changed his tune, promising to call the school and help find a solution. We said fine, and went to the local free law office anyway.

There (Mokdong I think it was), we got the best news of the week: what the school had been doing was blatantly illegal (finally, a government employee finds his brain!). The lawyer helping us called the school, was transferred four times to four different people in the same freakin office of four people before he ended up with the office supervisor, and laid it on em... THICK. The supervisor then told him that they were already in the process of filling out the paperwork to process my flight reimbursement, however, they couldn't finalize it until the principal returned. After hanging up, he told us that if the school decided to back out later, we had a slam dunk case against them, so no more worrying was necessary.

Back to the Saturday meeting at the school (and the follow up today), I filled out all the paperwork to get both my flight reimbursement and my severance pay. It was kinda awkward playing the face-saving dance with them, but I think I may have ended on decent enough terms (with the principal at least; the supervisor - who also happens to be the owner's daughter - and the rest of the office staff would probably like to shiv me). It was pretty amusing though when I told them that all the bullsh*t they put me through over the past week had stressed me out so much that I became physically ill (true story folks), and they countered with "Oh, us too! The lawyer and the Ministry of Education gave us a big scare!" ...kay. I'm sure I'm gonna feel real bad about being forced to resort to a lawsuit to scare my school into compliance.

[isitts]