Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AnsanAnswers]

Not going to bore you with the details; typical hogwon horror story with an irrational director who consistently changes the schedule, lies and misrepresents everything that comes out of her mouth and pays late.

It's only our second month at the school and the situation is rapidly declining. I'm not sure what story the director told the business manager, but now the 2 other foreign teachers and I have just received an e-mail requesting a meeting on Monday to discuss our 'failure to perform duties and termination.'

Our contract stipulates that in order to be terminated we have to 'fail to perform or unsatisfactorily perform any duties stipulated in the contract and has received 3 or more written warnings from the employer.' I have one write up, but the other two teachers are free and clear. As per the contract, I don't think they have grounds to terminate us now, but obviously our time at the school is limited.

I've done my research and have a decent understanding of obtaining a LoR and transferring my visa to a new school or hopefully obtaining a D-10 visa in the interim, but what are my options if I am terminated?

Upon termination is my visa still valid? Is it still possible to transfer to a new school (if I can get past the negative referral)? Should the 3 of us file a complaint with the labor board regarding the late payment so there's some sort of record of our issue?

I'm hoping we can work things out with the school to buy us some more time, but I'd like to know what all my options are depending on how it all works out.

Thanks for the help!

[ttompatz]

IF you are terminated and your employer reports it as required by law (often neglected) then you have 4 options:

a) leave within 14 days. Go to work in a new country.
b) report your termination and leave at the end of 30 days.
c) get a LOR and find a new job wtihin 30 days and transfer to the new job.
d) get a LOR and change your status to D10. Gives you 6 months to find new work and transfer back to an E2.

If your employer doesn't report it to immigration then you have until your ARC expires. If he should report it in the meantime and you are still in the country then you get hit for an overstay (fines start at 100k and escalate exponentially depending on the length of your overstay and whether you were continuing to work illegally during that time to support yourself).

If you don't have an ARC yet then you must leave before your 90 day mark.

.

[AnsanAnswers]

Thanks ttompatz. Happy to see you're still here enlightening all of us! We're hoping to avoid termination with the help of the labor board, but I also wanted to know what my options were, worst case scenario.

FYI, you're recommendations for our trip to the Philippines last year were awesome! We loved our time on Bohol, Panglao and Camiguin. If we still have a job come July we're heading up north to Coron to do some more diving; I can see why you enjoy your time there!

[My2Cents]

The D10 Visa might not be familiar to most teachers.

Provided you stay in-country and have a reasonable living arrangement, this visa gives you plenty of time to job hunt.

Since the visa generally becomes effective a month after leaving your hagwon, you actually have about seven (7) months to work with.

After your hagwon wraps up with Immigration, you just need to visit Immigration on your own, pay a relatively small fee, turn in your ARC and come back in a month to pick it up with new extended dates.

Plus, job hunting while you are in country may give you an advantage over other applicants because you are job ready and can quickly transfer to another school just by paying Immigration another visit (saving the school money because you don't have to exit the country)...and you can feel better about making your next employer choice because you are more capable of checking it out locally.

To verify your options with Immigration, call (02) 1345 and select the English line.

[Skippy]