Korean Job Discussion Forums

[D Shannon]

I've just been informed that my uni is requiring all teachers/professors to hold make-up classes for any class time that was missed due to national holidays. Appears the school is trying to get accreditation this year and they are worried about some kind of audit. We do, however, get time off for the school festival. Our contract says nothing either way about national holidays. Any uni workers out there who've had to do this? Is it legal?

[rudyflyer]

our univ told us the same thing. we have on our univ calender 3 "make up days" the first 3 days after finals. We put them in on our attendence sheets but nobody holds classes then more of this "image thing" Oh and yeah our school is up for an accreditation review next Feb so maybe thats why we are doing that. If we had to make up all classes missed to MT, festival, picnics, class trips we'd be here until mid July

My problem is with our univ hogwon making up days. This session is running 3 days into finals week to make up for the 3 holidays in May and after talking to many students its a reason why our hogwon classes are very small. Also it means for the teachers who teach those classes (I don't ) they don't get paid holidays .

[merrilee]

What about in a non-univ hogwan situation? In a contract I was sent yesterday, it stated that there are makeups for every National holiday. Didn't sound too appealing to me and virtually eats away at the holiday spirit. Is this sort of required make-up standard in hogwan contracts?

[kylehawkins2000]

It is not standard. You should be paid for all Korean holidays without having to work or make up the classes at another time. If this Hogwan is trying to 'nickel and dime' you like this I'd say take your services elsewhere. Most places will pay for your holidays no questions asked.

Kyle

[merrilee]

Thanks, Kyle. I thought it was rather ridiculous, but you never know...

What about key money- and them taking 300,000 out of your payment for the first 3 months. Is that standard?

[rudyflyer]

[Zyzyfer]

Unexpected days off, like snow days or something, I could understand, but your average ol' holiday? That's bunk.

[kylehawkins2000]

I've been offered contracts that have money deducted. They told me it was just in case you left while owing money on bills. That was a bunch of BS and I told them so. They know that if they take money from you as a deposit you're less likely to do a runner.

Forget that job. Find another place. There are plenty out there. The might change the contract if you want but it seems to me that they're probably not the best sort of people to work for if they are offering such a BS contract.

[Gord]

[Rebel Rob]

The school where I work withholds 600,000 won over your first three months of employment. Granted a deposit should be paid but this deposit should be reasonable. 600,000 is way too much. The last teacher who went home was required to leave 500,000 of his 600,000 behind. His bills came to roughly 65,000 won, I know, I moved into his appartment. Our hawkwon boss proceeded to inform said teacher that all of his 500,000 went towards bills. 8 months later this teacher still has not seen the rest of his deposit. I used my stove and heat everyday and even at the height of winter my bills were no more than 65,000 for the month. This is not the first teacher to have his deposit screwed with at our school. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have passed on my present contract and gone elsewhere.

[Gord]

My bills range from 180,000 Won a month for everything including phone, utilities and Internet (a record low for me) to nearly 400,000. Plus you can skip a month on every bill without issue.

My last two months bills combined at my current place work out to be:

215,000 Won for power/water/gas/maintenance.
190,000 Won for my phone
90,000 Won for Internet (not including a wireless LAN card charged to my bill valued at 55,000 Won)

Boom. 495,000 Won right there, or 550,000 if we include the LAN card. Plus things like Intenet you can roll over without an issue for months at a time.

Does requesting a 500,000 Won depost suddenly seem unreasonable?

[gajackson1]

ML ~

#1) it is ILLEGAL for them to have you make-up days for National holidays, but some contracts have it written in anyway. The Labor Ministry set that one; copies in English & korean are readily available on the web. if ANYONES school insisted, I would either shoot it down outright, or else produce the MoL statutes, and then negotiate out overtime pay.

#2) I'll straddle on the deposit issue. On the one hand, I would say no, it is not standard from what I have seen/known here in the last 6 years. However, I would not consider it to be too unreasonable, for the same reasons Gordzilla has stated above. Your REAL concern in that situation would be the situation RR put forth - not getting it back.

Also, you should be aware that there are many, MANY ways for employees and employers to rip each other off. Be willing to take what you dish out . . .

Regards, & good luck,

Glen

(PS ~ ditch that one; go with something else)

[justagirl]

Oh mi word! Gord, where are you living? My husband and I spend 1/2 of what you do for a month! You must have a huge apartment, you lucky guy.

Heating, electricity, etc: never more than 75,000
Phone: 65,000 (50,000 for 18 hours to the States on a phone card)
Internet: 50,000

Actually my job pays for all utilities except the phone and Internet, so we're pretty set. Who could pay less than $100 on utilities in the States? Our grand total for bills (if we talk all 18 hours a month--ya right) is 115,000 won. Sweet.

justagirl

oh--and might I also add, I don't like the idea of $ being taken out of the first paychecks--instead, why not average the last 3 months of bills before a person leaves and make them pay that?