Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BarelyMakingIt]

Hey All,

I am just wondering if there are any labor laws pertaining to a Hagwon employee's right to breaks during their daily working shifts.

Right now I generally work at my Hagwon from 2pm to 11pm and I teach anywhere from 5 to 9 classes a day. Our classes are the standard 50 mins. in length but our schedule runs back-to-back so sometimes I'll be working straight from 3 to 8 without stopping. Although I am teaching over 30 classes a week my boss maintains that I am working less than the "30 hours per week of teaching" that are stated in my contract becuase our classes are only 50 mins each. My contract states that I have signed up for 30 hours of teaching plus 10 hours of prep-time for marking, etc., but often I end up at the Hagwon for over 45 hours per week, PLUS I have to take a lot of my students' diaries, reports, and test papers home to complete marking them.

On the rare occasion I do leave the Hagwon during the day (to pick-up some Kimbap or run a personal errand) I am given grief for "leaving work". My boss expects me to be available to the students for homework help or to do my marking whenever I am not actually teaching a class.

So that's my sob story. Any hints or suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks for the space to air my beef.

[Cerriowen]

Easy.

Tell you're boss he'll start treating you right or you'll walk.

Pitch a fit. Stand up for yourself.

[dulouz]

You signed a bad contract. You are being rolled. Quit.

[VanIslander]

i worked a great job that unfortunately didn't have a dinner break, went 3-9 pm for three years and got very used to the routine, simply adjusted my eating routine, had lunch at 1 or 2 and dinner at 9:30.

now i'm at an okay job (in terms of overall personal satisfaction) but it includes an hour-long dinner break, when all teachers eat together in the office, at 6:30 pm. ... and it's SO HARD to teach afterwards! my feet, my head... very difficult...

i prefer NOT having a dinner break!

six hours of teaching straight through, wammo, no breaks, in and out... (i miss that)

[alabamaman]

http://www.molab.go.kr/download/_20051220144304549.pdf


Article 49 (Working Hours)
(1) Working hours per week shall not exceed forty-four hours
excluding recess hours.
(2) Working hours per day shall not exceed eight hours excluding recess hours.

Article 53 (Recess Hours)
(1) An employer shall allow a recess period of more than 30 minutes for every 4 working hours and more than 1 hour for every 8 working hours during the working hours.
(2) A recess period may be freely used by workers.

alabamaman

[robot]

doesn't sound too bad.

if you work 2 to 11 with 5-9 classes that means you get up to 4 hours of break a day for eating -- if there are no kids around, i guess!

the 3-to-8 stretch is overlapping your normal supper break, but it's still only 5 hours. just shift your meal times each a couple hours ahead.

i think a lot of places demand similar hours. my work may be an extreme -- the summer max is up to 13 hours straight, but everyday there are at least a few people with 8-10 straight hours. we're paid hourly, so it's not so bad, but getting meals in is difficult.

a 5-minute kimbab should definitely not be frowned upon -- this is unreasonable of your boss. at our work, with these extreme stretches, some teachers order in full meals when they have a 1-on-1 class and just share with their student.

i think your boss is also taking advantage with the 50-minutes-isn't-an-hour line. a 10-minute break is pretty standard.

ROBT.

[BarelyMakingIt]

Thanks for the advice! I've composed a letter to my boss and I plan on talking to him Monday. I'm not sure what I expect to come from this little talk, but at least I now feel like I have a leg to stand on...

Thanks for the Labor Standards Act alabamaman!!!! That's exactly what I was looking for!

[Grotto]

You also might want to point out that:

[PaperTiger]

That might be true Grotto, but don't most employers also state in their contracts that class time is the only time that is acknowleged as paid time, and that any preparation or subsequent checking of students work falls into the nebulous category of "non-teaching" time. Happens a lot, it's that whole "I'm your boss so I own you" feudal mentality that hasn't changed for 5000 years over here...Koreans get it worse than we do, believe it or not.

I seriously doubt citing Korean labor law is going to convince your boss to give you a break, they usually just see that as an act of aggression. You have to find a sneakier way of manipulating them. Hagwon owners don't really give two turds about what's legal or illegal...especially in regard to their English-speaking monkeys.

[Grotto]

True....hogwans dont give a rats ass but the labour board is beginning to take a dimmer and dimmer view of these illegalities.

I just say that people should stand up at the beginning and get a decent contract right at the start that clearly defines your rights!

[poof]

I wouldn't bother with a letter to your boss. Arrange a meeting time, prepare him a shot of soju and just tell him straight up that you have to get your 'recess' as written in the labor clause. Your employer probably knows about this already, but didn't think the 'ignorant' waygook would know about their rights. You signed a contract, but I think it's unrealistic for any teacher to work straight through without a break like that. Even though some Koreans might work this way, you just have to stand up politely, but firmly and dig your ground, even if you dig your grave in the process. You shouldn't be anyone's slave.

[BarelyMakingIt]

So I had a chat with my boss. The rather blunt and angry letter I had written stayed in my pocket, and we hashed some of my issues out.

In the end he promised to,
1) limit me to 30 classes, rather than 30 hours once Summer Vacation ends. To get him to agree to this tears were required, but now that it's been negotiated it is a HUGE relief to me.
2) He agreed that I was entitled to a 30 minute break every day spent however and wherever I wished. He did try to tell me that I couldn't leave the Hagwon unless the period of time between my scheduled classes was 50 mins or greater, so that I could be available to students 10mins before and after a class started/finished, but then I started talking about those bits from the Korean Labour Act and he shut up pretty quickly. I think he was afraid I might actually ask for the 1-hour break that I am entitled to (GASP!).
3) When I told him I wanted overtime pay for any marking I had to bring home he got very huffy and refused FLAT-OUT to consider my request until I showed his the steadily growing mountain of work that I have been refusing to bring home (since I first started writing to you guys). He said he would consider my request but thought that I was being "unreasonable" -- LOL!!!
4) I also secured a departure day from my job which is a few days earlier than my contract actually ends, which made me very happy.

Thanks for all your advice and help guys! I really appreciate it!

[captain kirk]

I'm a vastly experienced hanger on here who can't get enough of the hagwoning, apparently. So imagine my shock and disarray when, after I'd signed, the schedule showed no breaks between classes. Not even five minutes! Well I stormed that I wanted 10 MINUTE breaks plugged in there or I'd get even more (pronto) irate. The boss withdrew, strategizing...

It turned out that not having breaks was only on paper, 'officially'. I just dismissed class five minutes early to 'allow the kids time for transport'. Every other job I've had has had at least ten minute breaks to catch one's breath in preparation for/staving off retirement but no, strictly not this job....

WTF! But, strangely, it's better to roll on non stop through the day. There is a ten minute break half way thru 'the day' (3pm to 8pm). A communal, membership training, staff and brass group feed of ordered in food. Everybody around a round table sticking each other's chopsticks in the platters not giving a damn about hepatitis, what's that?!....

So, like possible hepatitis, not having breaks is only in the mind. If it's a mental problem, not having breaks, it's a 'waving the contract' and sputtering problem. The head teacher said, as consolation for the 'inhumanly absent breaks', "but the day ends sooner". And it does.
Now I recall sitting around on ten minute breaks being a depressing limbo for losers.....