Korean Job Discussion Forums

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

My employer has informed everyone that last week, Gyeonggi-do held some workshop for teachers to attend. Fee - 10,000.

Now they claim that everyone has to pay, whether they attended or not. If we refuse to pay, they say will simply deduct it from our salaries next month. Has your employer mentioned anything about this to you?

Ev · Joined: 01 Aug 2006

No, but I went to a 5-day Gyeonggi-do orientation thing in Suwon for new teachers last week, and my co-teacher told me if I leave this job I'm going to have to pay them back something like 270,000.

Pak Yu Man · Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Location: The Ida galaxy

penalty deductions are illegal.
If it's manditory...you're boss/school should pay.

Col.Brandon · Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Location: Seoul

Or just liberate 10,000 won worth of coffee and toilet paper from the school over the next few weeks.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

tell them is they take the money you will go straight to the labour board and let them deal with them.....stealing 10,000 won is low even for a hogwan!

bosintang · Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:56 am Post subject:

What a bizarre scenario, even for Korea.

Was the training mandatory or optional? If the latter, is it people who signed up for the course and just didn't bother attending that are getting deducted, or everyone regardless?

How can they force you to pay for mandatory training that you didn't even attend? If anything, if its mandatory training, they should have to pay you!!

ChuckECheese · Joined: 20 Jul 2006

You should inform your boss that if he deducts measily 10,000 from your pay, you will teach 10,000 less in one of your class by dismissing the class early (10,000 worth).

Kimchieluver · Joined: 02 Mar 2005

I agree with Chucky. Let the students play hangman by themselves and just check that the spelling is correct.

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

They claim the training was organized by the Anyang Educational Office or something. It obviously wasn't mandatory as they didn't even inform me of it until a week later. Apparently I was on some list kept by the city government.

The real kicker is that they claim paying the 10,000 won will entitle me to receive a "teacher's ID card". I'm really wondering if anyone else in Anyang heard about this thing?

rawiri · Joined: 01 Jun 2003 Location: Lovely day for a fire drill.

[quote="Grotto"]tell them is they take the money you will go straight to the labour board and let them deal with them.....stealing 10,000 won is low even for a hogwan![/quote]

You are a god damn joke. Stop giving advice such as this, in fact, stop giving advice at all. are you intentionally trying to sabotage people's teaching experience in korea or what. Going to the labour board over 10 000 won is the absolute stupidist thing you could do in this situation.

P.S, don't pm me with one of your usual whiny messages about the internet conspiracy against you.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

inkoreaforgood · Joined: 15 Dec 2003 Location: Inchon

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

The longer I'm in the Korea, the more I start to see that not everything is worth picking a fight over. Better to have good relations with your boss and school than pick a stupid fight over 10 bucks.

I'd rather get along with my boss and not have any hassles with the 2500 dollar bonus at the end of the year than fight over the 10 now.

I'm not saying that certain things aren't worth picking a fight over, however this one seems like it's not.

If it really gets to you, do what someone else said and take an extra roll or two of toilet paper and call it even.

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

Hapkido-In · Joined: 24 Jun 2006

I've had a similar experience, although I live in Bundang, not Anyang. It happened about 3 months ago. It seemed pretty shady at the time, but they printed out a little official looking form and posted it on the wall of the teacher's room. It was all in Korean, but the Korean teachers seemed to think it was on the level. The real kicker, though, was that we had to pay 10,000 won but we couldn't go because we had to work at the time the workshop was being held. It was really weak. I had a conversation that sort of went like this

Them: you'll have to pay 10,000 won for a workshop.
Me: what workshop?
Them: it's a workshop for teachers.
Me: I have to? That's...odd.
Them: that's correct, you have to.
Me: Well, if I'm paying for it, I would like to attend it.
Them: But it's in Korean, you can't understand.
Me: That's ok. I'm paying for it, I want to attend.
Them: But you are scheduled to work when the workshop is on, so you can't go.
Me: Koreantastic!

Anyways, your school isn't scamming you. The city is. Hope this makes you feel better Smile