Korean Job Discussion Forums

[alabamaman]

1. This contract will be valid for a period of 12 months beginning September, 2006 and ending September, 2007.

*Dates (September when to when)

II. EMPLOYEE REQUIREMENTS
1 The Employee will act in an appropriately professional manner and be responsible for conducting professional English Language classes.

2. The Employee will be required to work for regularly scheduled hours from Monday through Friday (In a special case like lunar new year or Choosuk holiday, one of the Saturdays or a national holiday in the month which includes a Korean traditional holiday can be exchanged with a weekday off to secure the convenience of the students and their parents), 30 hours of teaching per week, or a total of 120 hours per a month.

You're entitled to all Korean National Holidays. Ask for this to be removed!

What are your working hours?

How long will each class be?

3. Due to the nature of the employee�s job, s/he is required to proofread and grade each and every student�s essay of his/her classes once every two weeks. Therefore, the employer agrees to provide the marking time of six hours that will be set during the regular working hours on a weekly basis.

That seems like alot of extra overtime that you're being asked to do without choice. Say no! If they get a horrible mark on a paper the parents won't see the said grade.

4. During the course of the year, the employee is required to attend unpaid XXXX functions such as year-end parties, day-trips, workshops, teachers� meetings, and/or retreats. Such functions are considered highly important in the Korean workplace.

You're are paid for activities outside your established work hours! I wouldn't sweat it with the teacher's meetings though.


5. The Employee is required to attend the events held by The Employer such as workshops, year ending party, retreats, academic seminars, etc.

Without pay

III. SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE EMPLOYER

1. PAYMENT

1.1 The Employer will pay a monthly salary of 2.2 m Won for regularly scheduled hours.

Guaranteed monthly salary, or else they start cutting back for days missed.

1.2 The Employer will pay a monthly salary of 2.2 m won in the event that the Employer is unable to provide the Employee with the regularly scheduled 120 hours per month.

That's good.

1.3 If the Employee fails to work the regularly scheduled hours due to tardiness, absence, etc.; the monthly payment will be calculated and paid using a daily rate and/or an hourly rate.
The method of calculating daily rate: Monthly salary divided by 30.
The method of calculating hourly rate: Daily rate divided by 6.

No!

1.4 If the employer asks the Employee to work overtime during the summer and winter vacation, the Employee is expected to cooperate to supply better services to his or her students and will be paid for the overtime at the rate of W 20,000 per hour. Besides, in case the employee works overtime for special classes for debate or essay competition beyond the daily working hours or on Saturdays, s/he will be paid for the overtime at the rate of W 30,000 per hour.

Illegal forced overtime... Say no

1.5 The Employer will pay a monthly salary or the total sum of amount for one full month of work on the 30th of the each month. In the case the employee doesn�t start working on the very first day of the month his/ her working days for the month will be counted from the day when he/ she started working a regular schedule.

Not acceptable! You should get paid once per month in accordance to Korean Labor Laws. You work mid way through September, and don't get paid until October 30! That's a big negatory.

2. HOUSING
2.1 The Employer will provide the Employee a single apartment in a safe environment with certain furniture items (bed, washing machine, gas range, refrigerator, TV, a table suitable for taking meals, fan or air conditioner, some utensils and cookware) and the apartment will be provided at no cost to the Employee with the exception of utilities and phone bills.
2.2 The employee should have the duty preserving the housing and the furniture items provided by the employer until the termination of this contract. If they are destroyed, the employee should restore them to the original state or pay the cost needed in purchasing the same level of the substitutes of them.
2.3 The employer will deduct 200,000won from each of the employee�s first three months of pay to make a total of 600,000won as a housing management deposit. This deposit is to cover any unpaid monthly service or utility bills in the event the employee fails to pay for any service or goods which she/he used throughout the contract. The employer will hold the full amount of the deposit until all payable bills are checked to have been paid.

If you ask them to remove housing deposits and they don't they are considered housing penalty clauses. Say no to housing deposits!

3. AIRFARE
3.1 A round-trip airfare (standard economy ticket) from the Employee�s designated city to Korea before departure will be provided only for the Employee who will be fulfilling a 12-month period and who has been hired outside of Korea. This is not applicable if hired within Korea.
If the employee leaves the school before six (6) months, the employee must payback the initial airfare or the employer may deduct the amount of airfare from the teacher's last payment.

3.2 In the event when the airfare is paid by the Employee him/herself before departure, the airfare will be reimbursed by the Employer after the issuance of an E-2 Visa from Korean Immigration Office. The reimbursement is subject only to the Employee who will be fulfilling a 12-month of employment period.

This is not acceptable. You should be reimbursed upon arrival. No questions asked.

4. LODGING
4.1 The Employer will provide lodging, if necessary, for the Employee�s stay for the orientation and training period at a facility provided by the Employer.

You should be in your apartment the moment you arrive in Korea.

5. HEALTH PLAN
5.1 The Employer will pay 50% of the premium for the Employee�s health plan, which is provided by the Employer and are administered through the Employer (Participation in a health plan is optional, But it will be mandatory from year 2006). The Employee will be responsible for rest of the costs.

This is somewhat vague. You should have written in your contract how much the employer will deduct and contribute. The employer deduct's 2.24% of your monthly salary and pays the said deduction to the National Health Insurance Corporation. Your employer prepays a three month lump sum in the amount on (2.24% x your monthly salary x 3) throughout the contract to the National Health Insurance Corporation.

6. SEVERANCE PAY
6.1 The Employer will pay severance to the Employee upon completion of contract. The amount of the severance pay will be the same of a month salary( 2.2 m won), and if necessary, applicable government deductions will be subtracted.

7. PAID VACATION
7.1 The Employee may use 10-working days as paid vacation per year. No more than five consecutive working days may be taken at once. Three days of Institute-scheduled vacation are counted in these 10 days. None of these 10 days may be taken during the first three months of employment. The remaining seven days must be scheduled with the Institute at least one month in advance. (two days out of 7 days has to be used in official break period of Institute.)

You should be able to use your 10 days whenever you want. This is grotesque!

Days in which the Employee does not regularly work i.e., Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays are not to be considered as part of the vacation period.
7.2 The Employee will be paid for all national holidays and not be expected to work during these days otherwise in special occasion for which Employee agrees to work voluntarily.


8. SICK DAY
8.1 The Employee may use up to 5 paid sick days per year with the doctor�s note from a company-designated hospital, and after the 5 sick days have been used, it will be counted as absent and the pay will be calculated according to the Daily Rate/Hourly Rate.

You may choose to use your own hospital, and who are they to say which hospital you can and cannot use?

8.2 No more than two consecutive sick days may be taken at once.

Umm.... Whatever.... If you need to take more than two than so be it !

9. PENSION
The Employee and the Institute will make regular contributions to the Employee�s pension fund, as stipulated by the rules and regulations of Korean National Pension Corporation. If eligible, the Employee will receive a reimbursement of all contributions made by him/herself and the Institute upon departure from Korea.

How much will the employee be deducting from your monthly salary, and contributing to the Korean Pension Fund. Employer should contribute 4.5% of your monthly salary, and match the same amount.

IV. RENEWAL & TERMINATION OF CONTRACT
1. RENEWAL
1.1 The Employee must give the Employer a written 45-day notice before renewal or non-renewal of the Employee�s current contract.



30 days is plenty... Make sure you get contractual language stating he/she, one witness, the boss shall sign the written resignation letter, and the boss will stamp the letter with institutional seal.

1.2 Both the Employer and the Employee reserve the option to renew the contract.

2. TERMINATION OF CONTRACT
2.1 Both parties will give at least a written 45-day notice prior to the termination date of the contract.




2.2 The Employer retains the right to terminate the contract immediately if:
a. The Employee is unable to discharge the responsibilities or meet the conditions such as being late for class on a continuous basis; continuous failure to keep regularly scheduled class hours and repeated absences from classes without a valid reason.
b. The Employee teaches off the Employer�s property.
You can teach off property with approval of Korean Immigration though!
c. The Employee uses illegal drugs or is intoxicated during work hours.
This is most certainly a valid reason for dismissal!
d. The Employee participates in any type of criminal activity of corruption of public moral that violates the laws of the Republic of South Korea.
Criminal activity is a valid reason for dismissal...

e. The Employee receives 3 times of written notice from the Employer.
f. The employee tells the others about his/ her own employment contract details.

Not a valid reason in accordance with Korean Labor Laws

2.3 If, for any reason, the contract is terminated before the full completion of the contract period:
a. The Employee will not qualify for benefits such as severance pay and the airfares.
b. The Employee will be wholly responsible for any utilities/maintenance and phone bills remaining for the duration of their housing lease.

2.4 Within 14-days the Employee is required to sign a notice of termination and accompany the employer to the Korean Immigration office to notify the Korean Immigration office of the termination.

Omit this and replace with advance notice of dismissal language. Article 32 of Labor Standards Act!

V. VENUE FOR DISPUTES BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE
1. The appropriate laws of the Republic of Korea will govern this contract. However, while both parties enter into this agreement with total honesty and integrity, disputes may sometimes occur. In such cases, both parties will be bound by all terms and conditions of this contract and will try to resolve the difference in a civil manner that is fair to both parties. In the event that no solution can be found for a problem and either party decides to terminate this contract, they must do so in accordance with Section IV, 2 above. Upon such termination, both parties will agree to remain civil and to speak honestly and fairly about their experiences and not in a disrespectful manner.


VI.
FULL KNOWLEDGE

1. GOOD FAITH
The Employer and the Employee will act in good faith toward each other. The Employer will not dismiss the Employee without what reasonably is considered good cause and the Employee will do their utmost to satisfactorily fulfill all the responsibilities and meet all the conditions as described in the above agreement.

2. CHANGES TO CONTRACT
The Employer and the Employee agree that they have read the entirety of this Employment Contract and no other verbal agreement, statement or promise made on or before the effective date of this contract will be binding on the parties. Any changes made must be in writing and signed by both parties to be included in this contract. Any changes made to this contract, whether verbal or other, without the knowledge and written consent of both parties are to be considered invalid, and as such are not parts of this contract.

3. TRANSFERAL OF CONTRACT
Under no circumstances can the Employer exchange, give, sell, or transfer this contract or the services of the Employee to another party or Institute without the written consent of the Employee.

4. LANGUAGE OF CONTRACT
The language of this contract is written in English. For convenience of the employer this contract may be translated into Korean upon request and prior to the signing of this document. In event of a dispute, the English version of this contract will prevail.

VII. ADDITIONS TO CONTRACT

All other matters not stated above will be based on Korean relevant laws and regulations including The labor standard Act, Regulations about employment and XXXXX company regulations


When the employee is temporarily required to work in the head office by the employor, for reasons such as curriculum development, the working hours are 10am~7pm and there will be a one hour lunch break.


Employee:
Date: _
Employer: XXXXX

Director of XXXXXXXXX
Date: _ 2006

No defined schedule
Forced overtime
Readjust overtime
14 day notice
Choice of hospital
No Income Tax
Vague Health Insurance Clause
Vague Korean Pension Fund Clause
Vacation days issue

[jeefunk22]

I didn't notice a few of those things.
Questions:

What do you mean the "courts have ruled penalty clause if they don't remove upon request"? (In reference to the housing deposit.) Is there some specific website or such that I can refer to regarding this when I ask for an amendment?

You didn't comment on this, but am I wrong to think that the clause regarding termination and payment of utilities thereafter is weird? It says that if I were to be terminated.
"b. The Employee will be wholly responsible for any utilities/maintenance and phone bills remaining for the duration of their housing lease."
So they are in charge of my housing, but if they fire me, I still have pay up until the time I would have been working for all of these things? Or am I misunderstanding?

I will get the vacation/Saturday/overtime things changed. And I will definitely get them to change that daily rate thing, I hadn't even noticed that.
Thanks!