Korean Job Discussion Forums

[awave34]

Hey I was just offered a contract and have some concerns about it but I don't want to alienate the school. Is there a good way to go about this? Are most hagwons willing to negotiate?

Some of the problems with the contract are it doesn't include anything about paying into the pension, doesn't specify about whether the accommodation is single/furnished, and says if the teacher is dismissed or quits before contract is up I'd have to pay 200,000 won per month of the contract unfulfilled.

Are these reasonable concerns?

Thanks a lot for your help

[pmwhittier]

Is there any reason why you don't want to alienate this school?

Sounds like they've had problems with teacher retention, that's probably why they add that totally BS stipulation about paying them for unfinished contract dates.

If there is no mention of pension, it's because they probably don't pay it. I'm betting the tax rate listed in the contract is 3.3%. That means they are treating you as an independent contractor, which is not legal.

If a school is doing illegal / immoral stuff from day one, it's no wonder that they have teacher retention issues. If you really must must must work at this school and don't want to make them angry, just play dumb during negotiations. For example, "I saw that many schools obey the law and don't include illegal clauses in their contracts, so why does this school?" or "I had heard a rumor that pension is a good idea. Why does this school hate it's teachers?"

You get the idea.

[awave34]

Thanks for the response. Yeah I'm not married to working there, I just think it might actually be a decent contract in a good area if I was able to bargain with them a bit to change a few things.

But from what I gather about the job market in Korea teachers pretty much have little to no bargaining power, so I was wondering if anyone had any particular success with that.

I'll try out your suggestion though and if that doesn't work keep looking

[CentralCali]