Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Sadebugo1]

If you are considering employment with this university, there are a few
things you need to know. First of all, let me give you some background
information.

I began working at NamSeoul in the fall of '02 and finished my contract
exactly one year later. For the most part, I enjoyed my time there and
especially enjoyed the students in my classes. Contrary to the stereotype
of Korean university students, they worked hard and showed improvement in their English skills. I had decided to spend at least two years there if not more, but personal reasons that I need not go into here interfered with this. Therefore, I decided to resign at the end of my contract.

Prior to my final decision, I had heard some disturbing comments from fellow instructors concerning payment issues. Although NamSeoul had always paid my monthly salary on time, they apparently were not so meticulous about paying final salaries. I heard the following during the course of the school year:

*Instructor A (a few years ago) had not received his final salary because of his girlfriend. According to the story, she had worked in another
department of the university and left before she had completed her contract. The university decided that because of their close relationship, it was justified in docking his final salary as compensation for the cost of
replacing her.

*Instructor B (the semester before I arrived) had kicked his door in anger
and damaged it. There were no witnesses to this act, but the university
withheld his entire final salary to replace the door.

Now, I want to be very clear about the above. These stories are hearsay and I have no direct knowledge of their veracity. However, I did hear about these from at least two other instructors employed by the university at that time. I also heard several other stories related to nonpayment, but I will not include them as they were not confirmed by multiple sources.

In case you're wondering why I'm being so careful about qualifying these
stories, it's because I don't want to give any ammunition to likely
apologists for the university. Sure enough, if I make one irrelevant
mistake, there are those who will jump on it and use it to invalidate my
whole submission! I hope I haven't misspelled any words!

Having said this, the following is information that I DO have direct
knowledge of:

*In violation of labor law, the university withholds the final salary for at
least one month. This has the dual purpose of paying final utility bills
that arrive after the instructor's departure and potentially, keeping the
salary for other arbitrary reasons (see above).

*The university also promises to apply for a pension refund and wire this at the same time as the final salary.

Now, here's what happened to me. When I announced my eventual resignation, several instructors warned me about getting the final salary. One of them told me that my reason for leaving should be a sick relative that needed my help. Another told me that I should go to the 'administrative affairs' office "cap in hand" and politely ask for the salary. Eventually, I went to this office as did the other three instructors who were resigning. I was relieved when I met the Korean who was in charge of the office. He was very kind and assured me that I would receive the final salary one month after departure. He also assured me that I would receive the pension wired to my bank after they applied for it. I specifically asked him if I should fill out any paperwork for the pension and he said "no." "We have done this numerous times before and you need only wait." I left feeling much better and guessing the previous stories were just that.

So, I returned to America and began waiting for the funds to arrive. On
schedule, I received what looked like the final salary after utility
deductions, but no sign of the pension. I immediately e-mailed the
individual I had spoken with before. I did not receive any response. I
continued to e-mail, snail mail, and telephone him over the next four
months, but still was unable to make contact with this one individual.
Eventually, I enlisted the help of a former colleague who informed me that
the office had forgotten to apply for the pension and had apologized
profusely. I was once again relieved guessing that I would eventually get
the refund. Unfortunately, for two more months, I heard nothing and then in April (after I sent a registered letter) was unceremoniously told that they could not send my pension since I didn't have a Korean bank account anymore. The pension office refuses to transfer funds to non-Korean accounts according to the university. This seems to be the end of it for me since I will not be returning to Korea.

Well, I guess you win some and lose some. I did receive the final salary
after all which is better than some have fared in the past. It's just that
I've always felt that taking money from someone is the worst possible
violation an employer can commit. I don't know what really happened with my pension refund, but at the least, my employer's negligence cost me the equivalent of a month's salary. By posting these events, I hope I've spared others the same hassle or at least, allowed them to enter this situation with eyes wide open.

For the record, this university usually advertises in May or October for
open positions. You may never see these ads, however, because they tend to be on obscure websites/lists that don't charge anything. Just keep this story in mind if you ever see their ad.

Best of luck to all of you!

[Zyzyfer]

When I enquired about pension refunds with my school, I was told where the office was. While I didn't apply (because I wasn't sure whether I was going to leave Korea permanently yet or not), it's my belief that you don't need a Korean account to get the pension. Think about it...you have to leave Korea permanently (by law) to receive your pension, so why would you leave a bank account open in Korea to begin with? I was told that it would be wired to me somehow in the U.S., though I think they mentioned something about the U.S. government.

Somebody's fibbing. Who knows.

[Demophobe]

I have applied for my pension a few times, once I had the money sent to Canada. This was however, in the form of a cheque. I don't ask Koreans to act on my behalf, simply because I can take care of it. It took me 10 minutes at the office, no problems. The cheque arrived via snail mail about 6 weeks later.
Now, I don't know about that bank account transfer thing...it may well be true, because of the costs incurred on their part. I guess they don't have the authority to take the necessary funds form your money. It certainly sonds a bit suspect, but the Uni has nothingto gain in the pension matter. Them holding the funds is ridiculous, bacause they don't have it. The government does.
If the government won't transfer directly, then get them to issue a cheque. If you can do this from the US, I don't know, but would assume so.
Anyways, seems your quandry lies with the Gov't, not the university, which seems to have settled all scores with you. (besides their laziness/forgetfulness on the issue)

One question...why didn't you go to the pension office yourself? You would have gotten your money for sure. My guess is you just put your faith in the system, which is a mistake in any country.

[Sadebugo1]

A few of you have made excellent points. I should have been more proactive about this. I did ask the admin. rep. to provide me with the contact information for the pension office before I left, but he essentially refused. He said that only they could make the request for the refund and that they had done it many times before. This made sense at the time because, when I worked for EPIK, the program deposited both severance pay and pension in my account a week before I left without my even asking. Anyway, I was leaving shortly and didn't have time to track everything down. This caused me to put too much trust in the system.

I would like to say though that my warnings about this university still stand. They habitually have end of contract payment problems whether it be with salaries or pensions. I think the only reason I received my salary is because I gave them nothing to justify withholding it.

One more thing that I forgot to add in my original post. When telling a fellow instructor that I was resigning, he recommended that I sign the new contract, but not return for the fall semester. The reason for this deception is that I would definitely receive the August salary. My counterargument was that I wouldn't receive my pension. Oh, well! This advice demonstrates the perception concerning the university's honesty if not the reality.

But, seriously, my goal isn't to trash this university. As I said in the original post, I had a relatively good experience there. I just recommend that you consider what I've said and then use this to make a more informed judgement if you ever consider applying there.

Thanks for the advice!