Korean Job Discussion Forums

[YTMND]

Hopefully moderators will allow this thread to exist. If not, the alternative is to house it on another site and link to it, and if neither of those are acceptable I'll just forget it. Moderators can decide.

Anyway, the idea is since I have reviewed many contracts with the same flaws or personal preferences lacking, I thought I would simply make a checklist and tell people to refer to it instead of spelling out either the same or very similar terms in a second contract which is parallel to a previous one I already reviewed.

(Other teachers who review contracts could make their own checklist thread based on what they like.)

Do not reply with a contract, post those in the contract review thread in the forum.

1. Does the contract state employer/employee? If not, you could be considered an "independent contractor". Independent contractors pay all pension and higher taxes, whereas the employer would give the employee half of the pension contributions. That's free money for the employee, in addition to the salary, overtime, or severance.

2. A teacher on an E2 visa usually makes about 2,100,000 won per month. Public schools might pay less but are often considered more reliable when getting paid. You might get higher offers from a hagwon, but they often try to get out of paying what is owed at the end of the contract period (this could be your last pay, severance, or overtime). Use this estimate as a way to gauge the contract on a whole. If your salary is lower, it is not necessarily worse.

3. Schools always try to squeeze as many hours out of a teacher before obligating themselves to paying that teacher overtime. 25 classes with 5 office hours used to be the norm. Now, they are trying to get 30 or more classes.

Another way to look at it is they would require 120 hours of teaching each month. However, this poses a problem when determining the number of classes. Classes average 40-50 minutes. So, some schools try to get those extra 15 minutes to make up another class that you have to teach without overtime pay. For this reason, I pay very little attention to the hours they want. I spend more time getting them to commit to a number of classes per week. This way, if I teach one more class, I should get one class worth of overtime.

4. Overtime is 18,000 or higher. I have seen many contracts state 18,000 or 20,000. Reject anything with 17,000 or less.

5. The payment date is usually 10 days or earlier from the time you finish a month of teaching. If you get paid before the end of the month you are to be paid for, then consider yourself lucky. I try to get them to pay me 5 days or earlier and give them 5 more days if it is really needed. If you wait until the 10th and they don't pay until the 15th, then you have worked 1.5 months without getting paid. If you give them a security deposit, then they have more than 1.5 months money from you. Do you want that? At the end of the year, they will pull this, and now they owe you almost 2 months and severance (as well as airfare home). That's about 4 months salary!!! Yea, it adds up, so collect sooner not later.

6. Airfare is paid by the employer, but if you break the contract early then they usually want you to reimburse them for the flight money to Korea (if paid). In the past, the guideline was before the 6 month mark. After that, you shouldn't have to pay it back (there is no law though). Schools are now trying to change that to the full 12 months. They could then fire you in the 10th month and deduct the airfare money from that month's salary, as well as avoiding severance and airfare home. That's about 2 months salary.

You can take action (like labor board, legal action) to stop them, but it can be a lengthy process and perhaps you need to leave Korea for other reasons. So, I suggest you keep the 6 month guideline in the contract even though it is not a "default" requirement from the employer. The airfare would be considered a legal issue that would be harder to win and collect on, and the severance issue might be easier to win because labor board doesn't like 11th month firings. I put 10 in the example above because the school could try to get around the 11th month issue by firing you earlier, hoping it would be harder to catch them.

7. Severance is typically the average of your last three months pay. Calculate accordingly and accept what you feel you are owed. Try to get this with your final pay. There is no need to wait for severance and only get your final pay. This would indicate they are likely to not pay it. Whatever you do, don't leave the country without all the money owed to you.

If you decide to continue with the same school for a second year, you do not have to finish the second year to collect on severance for the second year if you don't collect on severance the first year (you get a prorated amount, 1.5 years would equal 1.5 month's salary). However, if they pay your severance the first year, then you have to start over the second year and work a full year to get any of it. It's like a new first year.

8. Pension is money you and your employer equally contribute if you are an employee. After each contribution, the employer cannot take it back. However, the pension office might hold onto this money until the last contribution is made. So, the school could be a pain and not pay the final contributions. You would have to wait. After all contributions are made, you show your flight out of Korea and they will start the processing. You should get the money 1 month later, in your Korean bank account or account at home.

9. Holiday time is usually 10 days or more, 5 in summer and 5 in winter. It's possible to negotiate differently though. Talk to the school about this if it is important to you.

10. Additional obligations are often listed in the contract, so it may seem like a lot. If you are worried, ask the school about this. Generally, they just want to be able to know you will be available for these. I have never found a school to actually demand all additional obligations in one week. They spread them out, and in my experience, we get free meals and such for it. Good schools pay for transportation.

11. Orientation periods might be paid or might not. If you are going to do orientation for more than 3 days, make sure to be compensated for it. Try to get compensated for the first three days also. Don't expect much though. Some contracts will have orientation but you might not do it, meaning you get paid from day 1.

12. Apartment issues are too varied to address here, but get what you want and at the end of the contract period square away all security deposit issues and bills when you move out. None of this waiting 1 month or more for them to give you back a security deposit.

School Tactics (teacher beware)

A. The school will calculate pay based on hour instead of a weekly schedule. Do you really want to tally up 120 hours every month or just get paid a flat monthly salary?

B. The school will offer overtime one week, but then they take it back at the end of the month if your total hours don't equal 120. This has happened too many times. What I do is hold off on some of what I owe the school (bills or something). Then, when they ask me to pay for it, I note the overtime I did and how that is a higher amount than the bills. That usually shuts them up and I still get my overtime money.

C. "If employee resigns (maybe gets fired), they have to pay airfare, recruiting costs, get less monthly pay, etc..."

Only follow number 6 on this checklist. Before 6 months, pay the airfare. Everything else is the school's responsibility. You are still a wage earner if not employee, you should not be punished for quitting or getting fired.

D. The school will penalize a teacher if they are late by one hour based on the overtime rate, but when you figure your hourly rate based on your monthly salary it is less. For example, a 2.1 salary with 30 hours is 17,500 but your overtime rate might be 20,000. So, you lose 2,500. This is a small issue if it is just one class, but if you are sick an extra day or have some other obligation, it could be more.

E. The school will give a reasonable schedule for the first month, but then they will change it so your schedule of availability has a lot more hours than the actual time you teach. Try to get 2 blocks per day, 1 morning, 1 afternoon, or 1 evening. I give them one hour if they need to spread out my availability. Only accept one day a week to have 3 shifts.

F. Instead of one class, you will be scheduled to teach 80 minutes. That's about 2 classes total. Nothing is wrong, but will you get more overtime pay if you teach an extra 80 minute class? If you are penalized for missing one of those classes, how much will they take out? It's better to commit to two 40 minute classes instead of one 80 minute class. You can always teach them back to back and it will be the same thing as an 80 minute class. Agreeing to an 80 minute class only benefits the school in several ways, not you.

G. The contract will list reasons for the school to fire the teacher, in excess of the norm.

(To be updated and edited when needed.)

[YTMND]

This second post in the thread will address commonly known schools. Only contract clauses will be commented on, each location may have its own pros and cons. You should talk to teachers who will work during the time you will teach to get a better idea what that specific location is like. Teachers on their way out might only give you a good review of the school because they need their final pay, airfare, and severance.

Wonderland - wants 160 classes/month when the average is 120, http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=197658&start=1425

TOPIA - fairly strict in what it wants, skims a little off every variable, http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=2804920#2804920


(will update later after researching)

[ttompatz]

The only problem with this thread is that EVERY NEWBIE thinks that they are the first or that there is something significantly different about their contract.

If they only took the time to scan through the contract review thread for an hour or so they would realize that their particular contract (regardless of who they are looking to get employed by) has already been reviewed a dozen times or more.

In spite of this and 2 versions (aprox. 100pages in the current thread and just about 300 pages of reviews in the thread before that) of the contract review thread you still get newbies every day re-posting contracts because they are too lazy to spend an hour reading.

The same can be said for most other "newbie questions" that get asked (like the "recruiter" threads).

In spite of this thread, nothing will change and newbies will still post contracts for review rather than read what already exists.

.

[YTMND]

I agree, but it's easier for me to say "See 3,4,7" instead of typing it out again.