Korean Job Discussion Forums

[james_baldrey]

I have just been offered a contract, and it seems ok. However i am still not sure about whether the overtime and duties sections are standard or they are trying to shaft me in the back!
Does anyone know if this is a good contract. This is my first one, so i would appreciate any help.

I have cut all the othe rparts off, so its easy on your eyes!

Many thanks,

James

[james_baldrey]

Would help if i put the contract in as well wouldn't it? To think that i am an english teacher!


Contract of Employment


Article 3 (Duties of �B�)
�B� is responsible for the following duties:
a) �B� shall teach approximately 20 hours of EFL classes per week or 840 hours per contract year, regardless of national holidays, at XXXXXX and/or other educational institutions designated by �A�. In accordance with XXXXX Policy, � B� is required to administer make-up classes for the hours missed due to national holidays. If �B� does not complete the required 20 hours per week, �B� can be asked to compensate for the difference between actual hours by requiring that, at �A�s� discretion:
1) �B� shall perform additional work such as academic research during the current or a later semester or
2) �B� shall teach additional hours, beyond the standard 20 contract hours, without overtime pay during a later semester
b) �B� shall keep one office hours per week for students and attend teachers� meetings.
c) �B� shall perform an additional 2-4 hours per week of work in such areas as curriculum
development and program management, as well as other teaching related matters.
d) � B� shall pay Korean income tax according to the relevant laws and regulations of Korea

Article 4 (Benefits)
�A� shall offer �B� the following benefits:
a) Pay: A monthly salary of 0,000,000 won (a sum of 0,000,000 won base pay and 000,000 won
research fund) shall be paid on a given pay date. An overtime pay of 25,000 won per hour shall be
paid for teaching hours in excess of the required hours. Overtime pay shall be provided for hours over 420 hours per half-year period.
b) Housing: A semi-furnished two-bedroom apartment shall be provided, to be shared with a
roommate. A settlement allowance of 300,000 won shall be provided within a month of arrival.
c) Medical care: �B� shall take advantage of the XXXXX Medicare Policy, half of which is paid
by �A�.
d) �B� shall have 6-8 weeks of vacation per year between teaching duties
e) �B� shall take advantage of the National Pension, half of which is paid by �A�
f) Severance Pay: Severance pay shall be given only if �B� has completed the contract term of one
year or longer; for one year the amount is one month�s salary.
g) Airfare: Within a month of arrival, airfare will be reimbursed up to one million won.

[the eye]

[Grotto]

change it to 20 xx minute classes a week.

Making up classes from national holidays is stupid.

[james_baldrey]

The guy in charge seems very inflexible when negotiating, but the salary is just over 2 million,and is in the very south of the country, where i guess things are a little cheaper than Seoul. Since i had had no other uni offers as i am abroad, i am thinking this is a pretty good first time job.

I think this is the best i can probably get, rather than working 30-40 hours a week in a hogwan. Anyone got anything to put my mind at ease?

[Grotto]

negotiate schnegotiate.

make some minor changes in the contract to suit yourself. Send it back signed and chances are they wont even read the damn thing. Just rush it off to immigration to get your visa process going.

[babtangee]

[the eye]

the only way you can know what you are getting into is to talk to the current instructors there.

ask what the turnover is like, and how many hours can be expected at times.

by the sounds of things, your total work load is heading around 25 hours a week with all the extras aside from actual teaching.
they don't actually stipulate any limits on how much overtime you may be working with no extra pay.
that's a big red light.

talk to current teachers first, to get the low-down.

[james_baldrey]

I wrote to 3 people working there,and here are their answers.

teacher 1 :i spend about an hour a class each week dealing with the tasks you have
mentioned. some teachers spend less. once you teach a class a few times,
it's often the case that you will have to spend very little time preparing
as you build up a folder of materials and lesson plans for that particular
level. i happen to teach some specialty classes that require constant
preparation. but that is rare.i have never seen a case where someone has worked overtime (ie., teach
classes) and not been paid. the uni is incredibly fair when it comes to
this. you are required to conduct 2 hours of placement interviews each
session (7 weeks), but this is fairly simple. as far as vacation goes, we
get 2 3-week vacations every year, and 1 week vacations every 7 weeks. it amounts to 8-12 weeks i believe (not really sure).


teacher :2) Our basic teaching requirement is 20 hours per week. Any more than this and we receive overtime pay; however, the overtime pay is only received every five months in a big hit. As regards prep time; I suppose it varies on which classes you are given. Some classes are are textbook-based, higher-level classes are left up to us to provide materials for. You'll probably find yourself very busy in the first and final weeks of each session, but additional workload is not too high. Our classes are split between LC and GE classes. GE classes require less prep but we have to mark assignments; and with LC classes- lots of prep but no marking. we have to make up classes we miss through national holidays. These are scheduled in our timetable for GE, in the final week of the semester. But with LC classes we have to find the time ourselves. For example, I have 4 LC classes now, and in early Feb we have 3 days off, so I have to schedule 12 hours of extra classes when I can.

Teacher : 3) . as it states in your contract you are required to work 420 hours per 6 months. this works out roughly to 20 hours per week. university classes don't run over this whole period, so you will have to do 1 or 2 more hours per week to compensate for this. you are required in your contract to put in 4-5 hours a week prep time. of course you can do this, but i doubt that it will be enough time to prepare sufficiently, or get good evaluations from your students. to be honest, at first i was putting in at least the same amount of prep time as i was teaching levelled classes (10 hours) when i first started.

there are no tests to do outside of scheduled class time.

you must mark about 7 written homework assignments for freshmen students. this is done online. if you want to spend a long time on this you will be at it for hours. this is unpaid, so i feel it is reasonable to make a general comment for all students to read pointing out the main mistakes.

You are not required to work overtime without being paid, you are required to work 420 hours per 6 months. the uni. is actually very good about paying overtime.

What do you guys think of their comments?

[Grotto]

Sounds okay to me. Also sounds like you can prep as much or as little as you want(4-5) hours min.

The only part I didnt like was getting your overtime once every 5 months. Hard to keep track of.

[turtlepi1]

That's the problem with Korean contracts...
Especially at an institution instead of a hagwon.

If you read the contract with skeptical eyes it seems like they are trying to rip you off at every turn. In fact whoever the "board" is that develop the contract are trying to foresee every way the foreigner is going to rip them off and account for it.

The contract is not a reflection of the working environment.
As was already pointed out and done, contact people working there. The best advice for anyone. And if they lie to you...kill them when it all falls apart

[the eye]

sounds much better. it's actualy not that easy to land a uni job on your first year in korea, let alone one that doesn't screw you.
i still think the workload is very high, even according to the testimonials. with all the prepping, assignments, testing and record keeping, you will be up over 30 hours/week by my calculations.

it sounds ok, tho! worth a year trry anyway.

[sadsac]

The whole make up the hours due to public holidays is crap. Under the current labour laws, you cannot be made to work additional hours. Just as if you work on a public holiday it's overtime. Contract law in Korea, does not overide Labour laws. Be careful.