Korean Job Discussion Forums

[daniellelievre]

Ok, here's my first contract, after the 1st revision by the school.

I know overtime is low, but here's the rest, any ideas? THANK YOU!!

2. Employment of employ
2.1 Employer hereby employs Employee to teach the English language in the form and manner and under the terms and conditions set forth here in this Agreement.
2.2 Employee hereby accepts employment from Employer to teach the English language in the form and manner and under the terms and conditions set forth here in this Agreement.

3. PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT
3.1 Employee will be employed to teach the English language at Mok Dong Seoul Language Institute.
3.2 As further provided herein below, from time to time Employee may be required or requested to teach the English language outside and apart from the place of employment.


4. DUTIES OF EMPLOYEE
4.1 During the term of this Agreement, Employee will accept, obey, and strictly comply with the instructions, supervision, training, and discipline of the director. These duties
will include instructions in any and all phases of the instructional program, administrative duties related to the Employee��s classroom duties, attendance at scheduled staff meetings and workshops. The director is responsible for establishing ��Standards of Performance�� relative to the Employee.
4.2 During the term of this Agreement the Employee will be required to perform work assigned to him/her by the director. Work days from Monday to Friday sometime including Saturday.
4.3 The teacher will work a total 120 class hours a month (one class hour equals 50 minutes). Any additional work shall be deems as overtime pay and the employee will be paid 15,000Won for each hour worked over and beyond 120 hours a month. Attendance at scheduled staff meetings and workshops are not considered overtime.
4.4 INSTRUCTOR shall not be permitted to work outside the INSTITUTION without the prior written permission from Director. Teaching for pay without the sponsorship of the INSTITUTION is illegal in Korea and is contrary to this Employment Agreement; violation of this rule may lead to immediate dismissal.

5. COMPENSATION AND OTHER TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEE
5.1 Salary
The employer will pay employee a base salary of 2,100,000 Won a month. This salary will be paid on the fifth day of each month. Korean income tax will be withheld at a rate of 5% of gross pay.
5.2 Holidays
Instructor will observe holidays as scheduled by employer and will be concurrent with the Institution��s scheduled term breaks. These holidays will be a minimum of 10(Ten) days over the period of one year and will be in addition to the Korean statutory holidays observed. Neither statutory holidays nor Instructor��s holidays will be considered when calculating overtime for a given month.



5.3 Housing and housing deposit
The employer will select and provide the furnished single living accommodations for employee. Furnishings include; a bed, a kitchen table and chairs, stovetop, telephone and a washing machine. The employee will pay the cost of monthly

5.4 Transportation
Employer will purchase for employee and economy class ticket on a scheduled airline from the point of hire to the destination city of the school in Korea. The employer will provide a return ticket at the end of the one-year contract period.

5.5 Health Insurance
The employee will be covered by medical benefits under the ��Korea Medical Insurance Union��, the government Health Organization. The costs of this coverage will be borne half by the employer and half by Employee.
5.6 Dependent upon completion of the full contract period, the employee will be given an additional one-month��s salary as a year-end bonus.

6. DISMISSAL/RELEASE FROM CONTRACT
6.1 Employer will have the right to dismiss Employee for unwillingness or inability to meet conditions of employment as set out under this Agreement, including neglect of duties. Prior to any such dismissal, Employee will be warned of dissatisfaction with performance or conduct and will be afforded an appropriate period in which to remedy the same.
6.2 The Institute can terminate this Agreement immediately if there is sufficient evidence that the Employee had defaulted on the obligations as specified in this Agreement and there is manifest inability to perform Employee��s duties under this Agreement. In this case, the Institute shall have no responsibility to pay for the return air ticket of the Employee.

6.3 Criminal or other conduct inside or outside the Institution that would in the opinion of the INSTITUTION seriously jeopardize any person or the reputation of the INSTITUTION, its students, or its staff, will be a cause for immediate dismissal and no warning time nor time for remedy will by allotted.
6.4 Both parties have the right to make the contract null and void under one of the following circumstances.
a) The health of the INSTRUCTOR is such that it is deemed impossible for the
INSTRUCTOR to continue.
b) Blatant misconduct by the INSTRUCTOR.
c) INSTRUCTOR or dependants violate Korean law.

6.5 In case of termination for contract before the completion of this one-year service by the INSTRUCTOR (except for unavoidable reasons such as the INSTRUCTOR��s serious illness or accident) the INSTRUCTOR is to return to the INSTITUTE the cost of the airfare thus incurred and INSRUCTOR has to give 30 days written notice to the employer if employee terminate the contract before the 6 months.

7. COUNTERPARTS
7.1 Any controversy between the parties involving the construction or application of any of the term, provision, or conditions of this Agreement, shall, on the other, be submitted to arbitration governed by Korean law. The cost of such arbitration, including attorney��s fees, shall be borne by the losing party or in such proportion s the arbitrator shall decide.
7.2 This Agreement may be amended only by an instrument in writing which expressly refers to this Agreement and specifically states that it is intended to amend it.
7.3 This Agreement may be executed in the one or more counterpart, each of which will be considered an original for all purposes hereof.
7.4 Matters not explicitly stated in this EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT shall be determined by taking the INSTRUCTOR��S and the INSTITUTION��s concerns into consideration.

[Son Deureo!]

According to my criteria for what you should be accepting as the BARE MINIMUM:

[jacl]

5% Korean income tax. That's funny. Try 5% hagwon tax.

[Big Mac]

I agree that the income tax in that contract is screwed up. I paid 1.6 per cent on 2 million won...might be a little higher for 2.1.

Pension is always mysteriously missing from these contracts. They should be deducting 4.5 per cent for that...which is matched by the employer. You are entitled to it whether it's in the contract or not, but it's always better to straighten it out in the contract so there are no arguments later. It's a great bonus at the end, even if it is a hassle to apply for the refund.

I would get a percentage rate for medical insurance as well, to avoid paying too much. I think it's around 2.4 per cent...so somewhere between 42-50,000 Won a month.

[jacl]

You can always use the tax thing as a weapon later on, but 5% is just laughable.

[daniellelievre]

Ok, so I am asking the school to fix some of these details and this is what I'm getting on the pension/tax front. How hard should I fight this before a) giving in and b) giving up?

PENSION REPLY:
About pension, not all school has pension system. Korea Government recommend for the employee and employer to pay pension to Government but most of the private schools don't have it therefore you also don't have to pay pension..( if the school paid pension, then you would also need to pay pension 4.5% of you gross income. Do you want it?)

TAX REPLY:
You pay 5% tax (which is paid by the other teachers I spoke to) and it is split up into a residential and an income tax. something like 3.3% for residential, 1.7% for income I think.

WORKING HOURS:
I've spoken with the other instructors, and the director, about working hours and they are only open in the afternoon. They are telling me "The request to written working hour is not what schools do. And if we ask it to the school. As you work in any school( this is not just for this school,( in any workplace you need to be flexible ), there might be something unexpected thing happening or might be not. Schools like flexible person for the case.."

So I am thinking to ask them to write that working hours will be 120 per month and agreed to by both the employee and employer before being inacted.

Thanks

[jacl]

Forget about them. Please. After your inquiries, they're giving you even an even bigger handful of shite.

First of all, I can't believe what you were told about residential and income tax. Residential tax is 10% of your income tax. So, if you pay 3% tax (which is really too high, but not bad) then your residence tax is 0.3%. So, 3.3%. Actual income taxes are much lower, but the employer can set a higher tax and you get a return. The problem is that oft times they just pocket the tax anyway.

Secondly, "other schools don't do this" and "it's good to be flexible" are statments coming from liars and cheaters.

I think I'm going to vomit now.

Run, Terry, run.

[daniellelievre]

You guys are right, they're drifting off into the land of the liars. I have spoken to some teachers there though and they say the staff, job, and contracts are good. If they give me crap about asking for a pension, working hours, etc, I'll look elsewhere. It seems like this happens everytime. I was wondering what the norm is for bargaining for contracts. How long does it normally take and what should I expect? Thank you all.

[Big Mac]

I agree, their responses to you are crap.

On these issues, I would take what the teachers at the school say with a grain of salt. A lot of teachers in Korea don't seem to know about the pension thing and consequently get screwed without even knowing it. That's why you're smart by coming on this board and getting advice from people who know better.

I would definitely look elsewhere if they're giving you these kind of lies right off the top.

[Cheonmunka]

Unless you are Kiwi, Australian or British in which case you definately DO NOT want to contribute to a pension fund.

[chessmaster9000]

[daniellelievre]

Does anyone know a webpage or document that shows that it is mandatory for them to provide me a pension. Is there even such a mandate?

[chessmaster9000]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[denverdeath]