Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I_Am_Wrong]

So, in being explained every minute detail of how my job works by my co-teacher, I was told that a law exists saying that it is illegal for Public Elementary Schools to hire a foreign teacher directly (outside of Gepik that it). She said that about a year and a half ago a memo was sent to all the Public Schools stating that they weren't allowed to hire foreign teachers directly and that they had to use a manager (presumably they recommended hagwons as managers).

Does this make any sense? Is this true? My school's parents pay over 4 million a month to have me but a large sum of that goes to my "manager". This seems really stupid.

[Captain Corea]

It's a scam.

About 6 months ago an "agent" was busted (along with 20 some odd teachers) for hiring teachers through their hogwon, then contracting them out to public schools.

The illegal part was the visa violations. The teachers were only permitted to work at said hogwon.

The immoral part was the "skim". The hogwon would get the teacher to set up two accounts. One for the school to deposit into and the second for the "agent" to pay the teacher out of.

what ended up happening was many teachers were working 2 or more schools but getting paid the standard 1.8, while the "agent" was taking anything they could off the top. If I remember the article the "agent" was accused of bilking millions (of won) off of the teachers/schools.



Moral; be aware of your visa status and NEVER let anyone open/into your bank accounts!

[dulouz]

OP is wrong. Its opposite. Schools must hire directly with no middlemen.

[Col.Brandon]

But still the scam continues. I've been hired under just such a scheme. The goverment pays the school 3.8 mil for me. The school hires an agent to (mis) manage me. I get a proportion of that 3.8, and the agent gets the rest for Forrest Gumping their way through. What a joke.

Why? Schools dont want the hassle of dealing with foreigners, I guess. They all have AIDS, you know.

Still, it's not a bad gig. They leave me alone to get on with it, and often pay on time.

[Roch]

The same deal was offered to me by a guy named Tino, and he told me not to worry about it when I told him that it was illegal.

[I_Am_Wrong]

so how can I find out for fact about this?

[thaitom]

So which is it,Schools must hire directly(no middle man) or not?.

[matthews_world]

ESL teacher traffikking at its finest.

[Gollum]

www.efl-law has a posting about this:


http://www.efl-law.com/korea_home.html

"A Korean Recruiter using various names is currently 'preying' on new teachers and the unsuspecting foreign teacher. His modus operandi is to find the foreign teacher a job, then convince the teacher that Korean law says the Teacher must set up two bank accounts - the teacher's pay goes into one account which the Recruiter has the secret pin code to, and later the Recruiter transfers money to the teacher's second account. We advise you to have nothing to do with this Recruiter - indeed you should report him to the Korean authorities immediately. Any one in this situation is advised to inform their employer immediately and close down the bank accounts. The Recruiter issues threats to convince the Teacher they will be jailed or deported if they do not do as the Recruiter says. See Forums for a victim's story.
"


My school has hired teachers directly with no middle-man for years. I assure you, it is totally legal.

[thaitom]

So schools are suppose to hire teachers directly. Is it illegal for them to use a recruiter?

[Gollum]