Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BigJ]

So I have been working here in Korea for about 3 months now and so far I don't have a lot of complaints about my employer or my school. I know some of my colleagues do, but I just think that their expectations are too high (not sure why). I knew when I signed on to teach at a hagwon that not everything would be perfect but I was under the distinct impression that my employer was one of the most reliable when it comes to getting paid. The other teachers are my school say that this never really seems to be a problem and that our organization is very reliable (proper income tax, pension, health care, severance, etc.). This is definitely the most important factor in my satisfaction at a particular job. I can generally put up with other issues as long as my time and effort are being valued, and the stipulations in my contract are being honored. Today my employer has made me aware of an issue or two regarding my pay that has me very concerned.

In August I may not be working 120 hours, which is the standard number of hours for a full-time teacher, as you would expect anything exceeding these hours would be overtime. I was just informed to my chagrin that if I do not work the full 120 hours that month that my pay will be pro-rated. Based on my calculations it won't be a significant loss but I was under the impression that I signed on to a base salary. Maybe this is just my own understanding of this term but shouldn't that mean the minimum expected pay? I don't see how it is any of my concern whether or not there are enough hours available. The wording of the contract is unclear to me and perhaps this gives them the ability to interpret my situation to their advantage (surprise surprise!). Still, I would like to know where I stand and how much pressure I should be putting on my employer to resolve this issue.

I am going to copy some of the relevant sections from the contract and see if anyone can help me with this issue. Please read my summary and further questions below this extract from my contract.

4. Regular Hours of Employment and Salary:
As a full time instructor, the �employee� will work Monday to Friday (excluding Saturday and Sunday) for a total of 40 hours a week. 30 hours will be devoted to teaching while the remaining 10 hours will be used as preparation time. All classes exceeding 30 hours per week will be considered OVERTIME, and will be paid with the properly issued overtime salary of 20,000won/hour.
School events aforementioned in section 1 are not considered overtime pay.
The base salary paid for regular hours of employment will be 2,300,000 won per month. The salary will be paid to the �employee� once per month without delay on the tenth of each month. The payment will include services rendered from the first day to the last day of the previous calendar month. In case the �employee� did not work the entire month, for example, the first or last month of a contract, the salary will be prorated according to the number of days worked for the month.
- The �employee� may be required to teach overtime.
- The �employee� may be required to work on a Saturday twice a year. In such an event, the �employee� will be provided with a weekday off instead.


Now does this section of my contract truly give my employer the right to pro-rate my salary based on the total number of hours I work in a month? It may only be a few months of the year, between the intensive and regular periods that I will not fulfill the 120 hours. Still I think this might set a precedent for taking more hours away from me whenever it might suit the employer. Also during the intensive period I was working overtime hours some weeks and less than 30 hours other weeks in the same month. So my hours ended up getting shifted to cover the gaps in the weeks where I was working less. This seems kind of fishy to me too, and I was willing to let this slide because at the end of the day I was technically working a little bit less the other weeks. I will make this an issue if my salary is pro-rated for working less than 20 hours during the other months. The reason I think this might be an issue is because the contract specifically states that overtime is based on hours in excess of 30 per week (not a total exceeding 120 hours a month). Lastly, I was wondering if it was typical to receive a severance bonus at the end of the year if you decide to re-sign the contract. My contract specifically states "Upon completion of this contract" and that "under no circumstances will it be withheld."

Thank you so much for your time!

[jrwhite82]

You have "base pay" of 2,300,000W. That means he can't pay you less even if you work less hours due to paid vacation/sickness/classes being cut back.

Why are you not going to be working 120 hours? Are you taking some time off outside of the school schedule? Did you use a sick day that wasn't authorized?

You should have been paid OT calculated on a weekly basis. I'm pretty sure it is Korean labor law. And besides it explicitly states it in your contract anyway.

Collect your severance at the end of each contract. Do not "roll it over" to your new contract. It really isn't worth the risk in most cases.

[koreatimes]

[BigJ]

Just thought I would give an update.

I talked to my manager and clarified that I am not going to get less than my base pay and I reiterated that it would be a problem if I were to get less than that. So I sorted that issue out by being firm with him. So problem #1 solved.

The only issue now is the overtime pay. I am not sure exactly how to handle this issue because it's quite common even in North America to have your overtime calculated on a monthly basis. I realize my contract states that it's based on anything over the weekly hours but I sympathize with the fact that my total hours for the month will still be around 120.

Obviously I could be pushing for more money but I feel like the only way to get this out of my manager is to have all the teachers rally together. The problem is some of them are too complacent with the way the workplace is handled.

I should clarify that I am teaching between 8 and 9 hours a day, and I like teaching so I can't complain about the hours themselves. Technically it is 13 hours of overtime each week but in August it will only be for about the first two maybe three weeks and then the last week I will only be teaching less than 20 hours a week. So his policy is to transfer some of the overtime hours into that week or two where my teaching hours are less than the standard 30. As I stated in the previous my main concern was receiving my base pay, the overtime is a secondary concern. It would still be nice to receive the overtime for each week but I kind of feel like I am taking advantage because at the end of the day my hours are less.

I should note that the fewer hours are only an issue for June and August because I teach a special kind of intensive program between June and August, so for July I received the full overtime because I worked more than the 120 hours a month or 30 hours a week. Of course I can only take his word for it that I will be receiving a proper schedule in September but after I was firm with him he said he would take care of me and guarantee my base pay.

I can't really complain about anything else, he is generally very nice, he has been very supportive, I have made many mistakes and he has been very forgiving of me, and any time I have needed assistance with things like broken washing machine, bank troubles, and even when I needed help with paying a bill he has been there to lend money.

So any advice with this overtime situation would be appreciated.

[koreatimes]