Korean Job Discussion Forums

The Bobster · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

The contract clearly says 10 vacation days per year plus national holidays. We had a 5-day vacation in the summer - school closes down during vacation time - and now the winter vacation is slated for Jan 1 through Jan 5.

Well, obviously, Jan 1 is a national holiday, so the 10 days promised in the contract suddenly becomes 9 - honestly I think he was hoping no one would notice this, and when I brought it up at this morning's weekly staff meeting most of them made some sounds resembling, "Hey, I hadn't thought of that ..."

Boss says he'll look at the contract again but he's pretty sure he's in the right, if the holiday falls during a scheduled vacation time he can count it as both, but I said, "Uh-uh. It's a national holiday or it's a vacation day. Can't be both."

The Kiwi teacher came to me later and said the wongjang claims to having trouble finding copies of our contracts ... aigo. How lame.

I'm figuring he owes us another vacation day somewhere, somehow - am I wrong? I don't think so. What do you think? And what's the best route to get what we want without poisoning the whole office atmosphere?

babtangee · Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:47 am Post subject:

Depends on what your contract reads, don't it? You don't have a copy yourself? Aigoo. Best way to get it? Offer to cover the other foreign teacher's classes while he takes his day and vice versa. Personally I'd be demanding overtime pay for taking his classes though (hardly a vacation day if I have to do extra work later for free).

EDIT: That or demand financial compensation in exchange for the vacation day.

The Bobster · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

oxfordstu · Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Location: Bangkok

Yep, this happened to me when I was in hagwon hell. They scheduled vacation time over Sollal - so those 3 national holidays became vacation days as well. Everyone complained about it, but nothing could be done. I think this is common practice for hagwons.

The Bobster · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

bourquetheman · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Suwon

The main problem though Bob is that there are always two contracts, one in English and one in Korean. In my 9 years here there is always a clause that says the Korean one is the one that is right should there be any discrepancies. At the high school I used to work in I remember finding something wrong about the vacation time (can't remember what) and when I brought it up they compared the same section in the Korean contract and it was different so THAT was the one they chose to follow. Even my wife (who's Korean) checked it over and it was a mistake in the English version. However if you happen to get a copy of the Korean language version of your contract and it is the same as the English version you do have a case.

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

The same thing happened to me at my old hagwon. The 10 vacation days in the contract quckly got whittled down to 5. Had I known that, I wouldn't have signed there.

Boodleheimer · Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject:

happens at public schools, too.

Bingo · Joined: 22 Jun 2006

Welcome to Dynamic Korea. Very Happy

rothkowitz · Joined: 27 Apr 2006

babtangee · Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject:

Worst thing is I know when I take my vacations the Korean teachers have to take up the slack. They only get two days off per vacation. This winter one of those days will be New Year's Day. Totally unfair, but I console myself with the argument that it's their fault for accepting their crappy job's pay and benefits (or lack there of).

Bingo · Joined: 22 Jun 2006

I remember after I had signed my GEPIK contract and went to Japan for my visa, the school board insisted that the trip was to be deducted from my vacation time. I almost went ballistic. They quickly backed down.

Korean bosses think that they can add new unfavourable conditions anytime hey wish.

Dynamic Korea.

Missile Command Kid · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Location: Daegu

ChuckECheese · Joined: 20 Jul 2006

Don't whine about the wonjang's stupidity. Do something about it.

Although my contract says that 5 days during summer and 5 days during winter, I told my boss that 5 working days which makes 9 days including the weekends is too short for me to go anywhere abroad and purchase an airline ticket. so I demanded that I take the 10 working days 16 days total including the weekends.

And my boss reluctantly agreed. Cool

moptop · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Location: Gangwondo

Last year at my public high school they tried to take away vacation time. This was not the only problem I had with them...

When I signed with the school, they verbally promised a number of things. Some things were written in my contract, some things weren�t. They explained that because it was a government run school there were certain things that the BOE could not accept written in the contract, but the school was ok with these �promises�. Things like 4 weeks vacation, instead of 2 weeks. I have heard that this is common, so I thought it was all right.
I had the first 2 weeks in summer, 14 days as promised, but the 2 weeks in winter was where the problems began. I had asked about the vacation in advance, and they hummed and hawed for a while before finally giving me my dates. I went and paid for my ticket to Thailand and arranged to meet my Canadian parents there. I hadn�t seen them in 1 1/2 years so I was really excited!!! Then, 2 weeks before I left, my supervisor told me they were shortening and changing my vacation. I asked why, and she said the new VP didn�t think I should get such a long vacation. They wanted to change it to 7 working days including a weekend. It would start on a Thursday, and I would return a week Monday.

I reminded her that we had verbally agreed to 14 days, and she said there was nothing she could do. She had a habit of being very ineffectual with requests. She didn�t like to ask, or question, a senior teacher/authority. I begged her to try and do something on my behalf, and she said she would try. She came back with the news that the VP was insisting on my lesser vacation, and asked me to compromise. I had already spent over 1 million won on my vacation and that money would be down the tubes. I tried to explain this to her, and asked why this issue was not addressed when I asked about vacation weeks ago. She didn�t have an answer and I was getting frustrated. I reminded her that she had promised me the vacation time. This was one of the reasons I signed the contract. I just wanted what they had offered.

She backtracked and tried to say that she had only promised to try and get that extra vacation, but it was not guaranteed. I said that was not true or I wouldn�t have signed. I finally said I would quit if I didn�t get it. Two days later I had my regular vacation time, but she was unhappy with my stance. She had advised me to be submissive and hope for a change, but I finally had to stand up for myself.

The problem is that when I asked them for a letter of reference they said no. Apparently the VP didn't like the fact I only asked for what they promised me as a signing "bonus", and told my supervisor not to give me a letter of reference. I'm only hoping this doesn't hurt me down the road, but I don't regret standing up for myself...