Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kavanluc]

My contract states:

"The Institute shall pay one way airfare between the nearest International Airport to the Teacher's place and Seoul Korea. The return airfare is provided. One-way airfare is provided at the end of the contract. When the teacher needs to go to Japan for E-2 visa trip, the institute shall pay round-trip airfare.

In case the Teacher fails to complete the contract by his or her own fault/reason, the teacher shall pay back to the Institute the total amount of the air tickets and / or the actual amount for the visa trip to Japan.."


That's all there is about airfare in the contract. Today, my director offered me 700,00W for my airfare. All of the tickets I've seen for my destination cost slightly more than 1,400,000W, or more than twice what he offered me.

My girlfriend, who is also leaving, actually needs a plane ticket. He found a ticket for her (to a different destination) for 1,200,000W, but she wanted to leave a different day. He said she would have to pay the difference since the day she wanted to leave was more expensive. To this, I thought, well, fair enough.

When I spoke with him about my airfare, he implied that he did not have to pay me anything since I was not leaving Korea, and he tried to act as though he was being very generous by offering me less than half of what I believe I am owed, which is airfare. Note: the contract doesn't talk about airplane tickets. It talks about airfare, which, to quote the dictionary, is "The price of a passenger ticket for travel by aircraft."

I rejected his offer. We agreed to speak again on Friday after the holiday.


Could someone shed some light here. The contract is slightly vague. Am I right to believe I am owed the actual cost of the plane ticket since there is no other amount specified? And how should I proceed if he refuses to raise his 'offer'.


Thanks!

[ttompatz]

The bad news is that your contract is so vague.

IF you were actually leaving Korea then you would be entitled to a ticket home.

Since you are NOT leaving Korea and there is no provision for a cash payout you will have an uphill battle to make an issue out of the difference at a tribunal (if it even gets that far).

Next time, make sure your contract has a provision to pay cash in lieu at either a fixed rate (EPIK pays 1.3 million krw) or as the value of a ticket to some fixed destination during some fixed time frame (ie: price of an economy ticket to your home airport within 10 days of the end of your contract).

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