Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alabamaman]

hello, all. i am completely new to this board (first time post!) and i just received a contract that I am interested in your feedback on. i know from other posts that i need to be concerned about the deposit and the overtime clasues, but what else should i look for here?

thanks for your help.



AGREEMENT

DEPARTMENT: Junior
POSITION: Junior Instructor

The following employment agreement is made between the following parties as listed and supersedes any previous agreement made between the parties.

Date the contract was entered on
Address of employer
Address of employee

EMPLOYER EMPLOYEE ( ? )

**********
**********

The parties agree as follows:

1. Definitions
As used in this Agreement, the following terms shall have the meaning stated:
A. "Employment Date" shall mean the actual date that the employees begins work at *****. ____ ____, 2006
B. "Termination Date" shall mean the date one (1) year from the Employment Date. _____ ___, 2007


2. Employment, Term, Duties, and Exclusive Employment
A. Duties and Responsibilities of the Employee; Place of Performance of Service;
Obtaining Visa in South Korea; Requirements of the Employee.
The Employee shall have the duties and responsibilities for the teaching of the English language overseas, in the physical premises located in South Korea to Students of Korean origin, by complying and following the academic program set forth by the employer.

Place of employment clauses should have contractual language stating the employee shall not work outside the place of employment located at (address) unless permission is granted in writing from the employer and Korean Immigration Officials. Korean Immigration Officials have to consent to you working at another school.

B. Duties may include, but are not limited to;
i. Teaching
ii. Substitute teaching
You do have the right to refuse overtime hours throughout the contract period. Substitute teaching hours are almost always worked outside your scheduled work hours. Furthermore, forced overtime is illegal.
iii. Giving interviews to students for placement tests
iv. Supervision of students
Supervising students on you 30 minute or 1 hour long breaks are not acceptable.
v. Preparation/production of teaching materials
The teaching materials should be readily available when you arrive in South Korea.
vi. Curriculum design and implementation
Curriculum should be set in stone upon arrival in South Korea.
vii. Attendance at teachers' meetings and workshops
1 workshop per month that you get paid overtime for, and make sure you get that written in any contract you sign.
viii. Writing evaluation comments and preparing evaluation reports
This will require more hours than your contracted to teach each week. This and ix is a bulk of the workload. Unless they are willing to pay you overtime at 25,000 Korean Won per, and bump up your salary then don't do it.
ix. Essay and journal correction
Negatory!
x. Execution of duties as an assistant Homeroom teacher
xi. Implementation of teachers' policy
These are otherwise known as the "Rules of Employment," and you should have contractual language stating you will have a copy attached to you contract.
xii. Participation in micro-teaching group presentations
Overtime for these hours period.

You have a huge workload, and you will get burnt out very easily. Meetings are not anything to gripe about. Stick to one workshop a month, and overtime pay if it's outside established hours in the labor contract. Clauses V & VI should be reworded or omitted. They give you a sense they're pretty unorganized. It's not your job to create a curriculum that's supposed to be set in stone upon arrival. That will take more hours of your time which you should get overtime pay for, and they would be likely to give it to you. Essay and journal correction should be ommited. That's going to be more added time that will amount to more overtime that they probably wont pay you for.

C. The Employee's duties and responsibilities, as well as the academic programs, may be modified, from time to time, after being agreed upon by both the Employee and the Employer.

No.... Your duties are established in your contract, and never agree to this. This is a way for them to pile more work onto your workload!

Any modification(s) in the Employee's duties and responsibilities, and/or academic programs, shall not constitute a termination of the Employment, constructive or otherwise if not agreed upon before hand by both parties.

D. The Employee's schedule will be different during the summer and winter sessions of the school year. Each session will be 4-6 weeks long and will take place in January and July/August of each year. During these sessions, overtime will be required.

Refer to what I said earlier about forced overtime. Make sure you have 1 hour breaks during these intensives, and that should be written in the contract in this clause. They working hours of these intensives should be written in the contract. The dates of the intensives should be included in the contract. Overall, this is a poorly written clause not to mention the forced overtime is unacceptable!


The Employee may work longer than the usual working hours with a class load of 10 classes. Overtime rules will apply and the Employee will be compensated as outlined within this agreement. Due to the way the Korean education system works, this schedule is unavoidable. The Employer understands that this is a heavy load and the Employee's appreciation is greatly appreciated.

E. There is one main area where the Employee may be asked to come in on his/her off duty time.

Your time of is your time off. Don't agree to this. As a matter of fact this contract seems familiart, and I think I've seen it before in this forum. They have teachers who are working on those days who can handle the situation.

It is for student placement testing. In this case, the Employee will be asked to assess students' English ability to determine what level the student is at. Additionally, the Employee may need to correct the written placement examination. These tests will be approximately 2 hours long and may take place a couple of times a month. Time required to conduct these tests will be considered overtime and paid as such. These events may occur on any day of the week or on an Employee's day off. ****** management will seek volunteers first for these occasions. If sufficient participation is not volunteered, the management will need to assign these duties, evenly throughout the Employees, to meet the needs of the school: Taking days off from the Employees will be as limited as possible.

F. The Employee by entering into this Agreement attests and warrants that he/she is the holder of at least a Bachelor's degree and has a valid passport enabling him or her to travel freely in and out of his/her country of citizenship.

G. The Employee agrees to supply the Employer with a copy of his/her University Degree and to allow such degree with a copy of his/her alien registration card to be posted at the school, as per Korean Labor Regulations.

Never agree to give your employer the original copy of the degree. If you need to find work elsewhere, they may get spiteful and hold onto to it.

H. The Employee must also supply the Employer with 3 passport-sized photos upon his/her arrival. The photos will be used in ***** advertising flyers and the ***** website. Additionally the Employee must provide email address to be posted on the ***** website. This email address can be on designed specifically for said purpose.

Never agree to advertising. Your e-mail address is private information, and you shouldn't be forced to release such information essentially to the public.

3. Term of the Employment

The Employment shall begin 1 week after the Employee's arrival into South Korea. The first week will be considered as unpaid leave allowing the Employee to adjust and settle in a bit before beginning employment; During this period, the Employee will get "Teacher's Training Program from the company("Employment Date"), and unless sooner terminated, as provided below in Section 6 of this Agreement, the Employment shall continue for a period of one(1) year from the Employment Date(Termination Date), and unless renewed, shall automatically terminate on the Termination Date.

Remember if you don't have your E2 Visa, then you cannot participate in work and/or any work related activities. If you didn't have your E2 Visa, then you wouldn't be allowed according to Korean Immigration policies to participate in such a program as the Teachers Training Program. Basically you would start teaching classes earlier. That's why I always advocate for contractual language stating the employee will work for the employer when the employee has been issued an E2 Visa.


4. No Other Competitive Employment or Activities

During the Employment, the Employee shall diligently and conscientiously devote the required professional/business time, energy, interests, abilities, and attention to discharging his duties to the Employer, and shall not, without the express prior written consent of the Employer, render to any other person, corporation, partnership, firm, Employer, joint venture or other entity any services of any kind for compensation, or engage in any other activity that would in any manner whatsoever compete with the Employer, be adverse to any interests of the Employer and/or in any manner whatsoever interfere with the performance of the Employee's duties for the Employer.

You also need permission from Korean Immigration to work outside the place of employment as mentioned earlier.

5. Dual Employment Prohibition

The Employee, after signing the agreement and receiving a work visa, can only legally work for the Institute designated by the Employer. If the employee works for any other institutes, companies, or individuals without the written consent of the Employer and the Korean Immigration Office, the Employee shall face legal consequences which will/may include a fine and possible deportation.

6. Compensation and Benefits

During the employment, and subject to the pursuant to Section 8.D(early Termination by Employee), the Employee shall receive:

A. Monthly compensation in the amount ? 2,000,000 Korean Won will be

For all the stuff they are asking you to do in the duties I would ask for 2,300,000 Korean Won minimal. They are underpaying you for 2.0 mil won!

paid based on 30(50 minute) classes(25 classes in case of 60 minute classes) per week during the described working hours and days. The Employee shall perform his/her duties for 40 hours per week, 5 days per week,

Monday through Friday(block shift or split shift as the situation demands).
Defined hours even if you have split shifts is a must in all contracts. If you don't have your hours set in stone, they will demand you to work oddball goofy hours. You will have an awful year!


In case that the Employer asked the Employee to take classes on weekends, the Employee can accept or refuse it. The Employee will be paid on the 10th of the month for the previous months services rendered.

Paid on the 3rd the very latest, although more people say the 5th.

For example, the Employee will be paid on September 10th for his/her work in August. Additional classes taught beyond the agreed upon 30 periods per week will be compensated as outlined below under letter D.

Salary paid for a partial month's work will be calculated as follows: Base monthly salary divided by the # of days in the month, multiplied by the number of days worked. For example, if your last day of work is March 19th and your base salary is 1,900,000 won, you would divide 1,900,000 by 30 and multiply by 19, for a salary of 1,203,333 won.

This is SH*** That's why ya have cantractual language stating guaranteed monthly salary!



B. Training: The Employee will receive 5 days training. The training schedule will be given by the company when the Employee arrived.

No, the training schedule should be in the contract. Afterall you wouldn't want to start teaching right away without an E2 Visa

C. Housing

i. A shared housing with furnishings will be supplied by the Employer.

Single housing only

ii. The Employer is not responsible for utility charges such as electricity, gas, telephone charges, etc.

iii. Normal wear and tear maintenance needing to be accomplished on the apartment or furnishings will be paid for by the employer.




In the event the damage is due to the Employee's negligence, the Employee will be charged for the accomplished maintenance.

iv. The Employee agrees to pay (600,000 won) as a deposit.

Say no to deposits... My research tells me that if you ask the school to remove it from the contract, they dont, then it's a penalty clause!
This deposit is to cover unpaid monthly services, utility, and telephone charges. The Employer agrees that the deposit will be returned in full to the Employee in the even of no outstanding charges. The Employer will deduct 200,000 won per month for the first 3 months where the Employee makes their total base salary (i.e. a full month's work).

Never agree to such deductions! If you ask them to remove this deposit from the contract, they don't, then it's considered a penalty clause.

v. This deposit will be paid back to the Employee after all bills that he/she is responsible for have been paid.
vi. The Employee is responsible for paying all utilities and must submit the receipt of payment to the school, no later than the 5th of each month. Failure to do so will result in the withholding of the Employee's monthly salary until receipts showing payment of utilities are submitted.

Remove this penalty clause, cannot withhold pay!

vii. The Employee has to share twice a year with a native English teacher who doesn't have housing yet after arriving from his/her country for a week by the request of the representative of the employer.

D. The Employer agrees to pay the Employee overtime wages for any classes taught in addition to the agreed upon per workweek using the following guidelines:

40/50 Minute classes: The Employee will teach 120 classes per month for the base salary. In the event the assigned class load exceeds 120 classes per month, overtime pay will be 15,000 won per class(20,000 won per 60 minute class) during normal working hours.


Overtime at 2,000,000 Won is 20,000 Korean Won per. For all the work they were asking you to do under your duties, you should ask for 25,000 per overtime class/hours.

In the event the Employee teaches classes on weekends or falling outside of normal working hours, the Employer will pay 30% of the whole tuition fee income of the classes taught by the Employee which will be divided by the number of teachers.

Just get it changed the employee will get paid 20,000 KRW per hour on weekends.!


Teachers scheduled for their base number of classes will be paid their base salary regardless of holidays.

Paid Overtime on holidays!

Additional classes will be paid as overtime if the number of classes taught and the classes missed for a holiday exceed the contractual base. Teachers scheduled for more than their base number of classes will be paid their base salary regardless of holidays. Their overtime will be compensated on a weekly basis. Holidays cannot be used when calculating overtime. However, any class taught in additional to regularly scheduled classes(i.e. substituting) will be paid as overtime regardless of holidays.

E. Medical Insurance; 50% of the premium is paid by the Employee and 50% is paid by the Employer. The premium costs will start from the Employee's arrival date into Korea. Once you are registered for Korean insurance, you must keep it for the entire term of employment. If you decline your insurance benefit with **********and elect to use this benefit with another school after the employment with **********, ********** is not responsible for any of the Premiums that you may due upon your acceptance of Korean Insurance.

F. Bereavement leave: Bereavement leave will be available and dealt with on an individual basis, as this is not a foreseeable circumstance. Leave taken will be considered unpaid vacation time.

How many days of leave: Norm is 5

G. The Employee will be granted 10 days paid vacation following the school session schedule. The Employer will schedule all 10 days of paid vacation to coincide with the school's operating schedule.

Don't let them pull the ol' paid days on weekends either!

H. In addition to the Employee's paid vacation, there are also 13-15 Korean National holidays observed in Korea, depending on the calendar year, which the Employee will be granted off.

I. Severance pay amount will be equivalent to one month's salary.
It will be paid on the Employee upon the successful completion of this contract.

How much severance will you get paid after taxes are taken out?

7. Termination of Employment

A. Early Termination for Cause
The Employer has the unrestricted right to terminate the Employment at any time for cause.

The key word in accordance with Korean Labor law is "justifiable cause."

Upon any termination for cause, the Employer's sole obligation to the Employee shall be to pay the Employee through the date of such early termination his/her earned monthly compensation, and no other benefits such as return trip airline ticket or reimbursement of shipping expenses shall be paid. The Employee shall reimburse the Employer, as liquidated damages, all expenses incurred in anticipation of the Employment of Employee. These expenses are the airfare(as outlined below), and the recruiting fee on a pro-rated basis.

Termination for Cause is restricted to:
i. The Employee's deliberate and intentional refusal to perform his duties owed to the Employer as provided in this Agreement(Employee's breach of contract);
ii. The Employee fails to make corrective actions based on written and oral feed back provided by the Employer based on the Employee's performance and evaluations.
iii. The Employee's dishonesty and moral turpitude with respect to his relationship with the Employer;
iv. Gross negligence or reckless behavior by the Employee which may result in demonstrable harm to the Employer; or
v. The occurrence of any event constituting cause for termination shall permit the Employer to terminate the employment. The decision to take any other action, in response to any such occurrence, shall be in the sole and exclusive discretion of the Employer.

B. Early Termination by the Employer and Employee
The Employer and Employee may terminate this contract with a written 30-day notice.

This is called an Advance Notice of Dismissal. Make sure you get it written in the contract that "The employee, empoyer, and one witness shall sign the Advance Notice of dismissal. Furthermore, the employer shall stamp the Advance Notice of Dismissal with the schools institutional registered stamp."

C. In the event the Employer enacts this paragraph by terminating or "without" giving notice of termination, the Employer shall pay the Employee for the 30-day period after an official termination of employment intent has been given to the Employee.

D. In the event the Employee enacts this paragraph by terminating or giving notice or termination, the Employee shall reimburse the Employer as liquidated damages all expenses incurred in anticipation of the Employment of Employee which include airfare, and the recruiting fee.

Get it in writing that you will state the reasons for severing your contract. You also want contractual writing stating employee may terminate the contract in accordance with Article 26 of the Labor Standards Actt and all other applicable laws. Also have contractual writing stating that your employer, yourself, and one witness shall sign the letter of resignation shall sign it. Furthermore, the boss will stamp the letter of resignation with the institutilan seal.

The airfare will be paid back using the following guidelines;
i. If the Employee has not completed 6 months of the contract, the Employee will pay the Employer for the full amount of the ticket one-way or round-trip.



ii. If the Employee has completed 6 months of the contract period, and a round-trip ticket was purchased, the Employee will reimburse the Employer half the cost of the original price of the ticket.

Negatory...... Dont pay back any of it after six months!

iii. If a one-way ticket was purchased and the Employee has completed 6 months of the contract, the Employee will not pay the Employer any money and will forfeit a return ticket home.

E. Effect of Termination
Upon termination of the employment after the satisfactory completion of the one(1) year period, or upon any early termination of Employee's Employment and this agreement, the following shall occur:
i. Within two days after the Date of Termination or early termination, the Employer shall pay Employee all earned but unpaid monthly compensation.
ii. Immediately after the Date of Termination, the Employee shall deliver to the Employer all of the Employer's personal property, documents, records, and other items in the Employee's possession or custody.
8. Sole and Entire Agreement

This Agreement is the sole, complete and entire contract, agreement and understanding between the Employer and the Employee concerning the Employment; the terms and conditions of the Employment; the duration of the Employment, the termination of the Employment and the compensation and benefits to be paid and provided by the Employer to the Employee pursuant to the Employment. This Agreement supersedes any and all prior contracts, agreements, correspondence, letters of intent, understanding, and/or negotiations, whether oral or written, concerning the Employment; the terms and conditions of the Employment; the duration of the Employment; the termination of the Employment and/or the compensation and benefits to be paid by the Employer to the Employee pursuant to the Employment.

9. Applicable Law and Venue

This Agreement and each and every provision hereof shall be interpreted pursuant to laws of the Republic of Korea without regard to any conflicts of law principles, and the venue in which a claim, action or lawsuit may be brought shall be exclusively the Republic of Korea.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Employer and the Employee have each duly executed this Agreement on the dates set forth below their respective signatures.

************

Signed_____________________________ Signed _____________________________
************

Dated:_____________________________ Dated: