Korean Job Discussion Forums

[lesza]

Here I sit, cryin' in my coffee wondering where it all went sooo wrong. I'll admit it was pretty good for the first eleven months or so, but now... well, the lovin' is gone. So what could possibly have happened to make a purty little gurl like me curl up on the blanket on the floor and cry like a little bittie baby?? The usual... I fell for a good-looking hagwon and he broke my heart. Yup my promissary note for w5 000 000 ain't worth the paper it's scrawled on. And I trusted him...

What's a gal to do... resort to fire-bombing (oh, was that out loud?). I guess I'll start knitting a protest sign to keep me warm while I hold vigil outside his cheatin', lyin', good fur nothin' yellow van. ( MAybe I should get Princess down here to slap him, but it better be hard enough to leave a mark!)

[ulsanchris]

maybe you could give a few more details on what has happened and what you have done so far so the people on here could give you some advice.

[lesza]

This sad little tale is the (so far) end result of a story that I began on Dave's about a month ago. Some of you might remember way back that far when I told about my contract not being renewed after four months of verbal agreement. My boss had up and changed the contract language (increased work load of 15% with no relative pay increase). I couldn't re sign on the dotted line, so that left me with three weeks to pack before the end of my original contract. Meanwhile my compatriot Catalina, you may have heard of her, ran into a few problems of her own at the same hagwon. She can update you on that herself.

I was to be paid out in full last Friday, my final day, as verbally agreed by the boss. Well, no money magically appeared and I thought to myself: 'Self, there's no use complaining about it today, just let this be a fond farewell and worry about it tomorrow.' So tomorrow rolled around and I met with my boss who showed me a calculation that he made as to what was owing me and we were pretty much in agreement over things. He told me that he would settle the bill on September 8. I agreed, but held to a compromise that I would not vacate the apartment for the new teacher (arriving the next day) without a large deposit. The next day, sure enough he gave me a huge wad of bills -- about 1/3 of the debt-- cash in hand and I shoved my boxes into the hallway. Things were looking fine for me. At the same time Catalina was being rolled for her final pay. Things were still looking fine for me until I received an e-mail today, in Korean, which has one sentence in English at the bottom, and I quote: "I don't severance pay...translation kim kun hoon" (my illustrious boss)

The Korean is beyond me, but this part (above) I can sort of understand, if I am interpeting it correctly, but there's always room for misunderstanding, or so I have come to learn in this fine country. So I am waiting to hear back from my boss as I have requested a note of clarification, and tomorrow I will show the Korean portion to a friend who will translate it for me as we drive to the local Labour Board Office so Catalina can make her last ditch petition to write the many wrongs she has thus far endured. As Catalina has so aptly signed off lately "things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse" and for me they just did. And don't even talk to me about changing my plane ticket out again, the agent won't even accept my calls anymore.

PS the worldwide exclamation shortage may have been caused by another poster, but the comma shortage is definitely my fault.

[canuckistan]

That truly sucks. Keep at him like a blood dog. I hope you get your severance. It is the law.

According to The Urban Myth however, you should really be here for the teaching and not the money....

[Gord]

[rapier]

Truly sorry Lesza: what school is it again- just so we're warned..
They think they are being soo smart and original by ripping people off,-truly pathetic. I know it's a working relationship, but still, you can get to know your boss well on a social level- and they will still pull this bunny out. Total scumsucke r s.

[Skarp]

Someone above wrote...

[mack the knife]

Of course you realize you've nothing to cry about. Heck, this issue has even made it to the pages of the illustrious, always veracious "Korea Herald" via our friendly legal expert Sean Hayes. Severance is not an option. It's a legal responsibility. You did your time, he pays the price. Simple economics.

Congratulations, the labor board is your new best friend.

[rapier]

Its all your own fault...you should've taught better, you should've studied korean, then you'd have been able to communicate properly with your boss. He must have had good reasons not to pay you, because Koreans are smart, they know when they're being wronged.

just call me GORD!!!!!

[TheUrbanMyth]

[peppermint]

That sucks, Leeza. Maybe the folks at www.efl-law.com can help?

Wishing you luck, or at least revenge

[Son Deureo!]

In addition to the Labor Board, EFL-Law.com and blacklists, another weapon you may have in your arsenal is the tax office. Do you think your boss has been paying his taxes properly if he thinks he can get away without even paying your full wages?

A guy in my neighborhood had similar problems, and as soon as he even mentioned the tax office the school caved. It might work for you, too.

Lost Seoul made a great post that I keep referring people to with a list of resources for the screwed-over in Korea. The guy he refers to from the tax office really is helpful.

Here it is:

[tz247]

personnally, I wouldn't have left the apartment until I got paid ALL the money, and while I was there, I would of backstabbed the school to no end to every new teacher that came to live there. If the cops, came to forcebly remove me, I would claim that I was living there in lieu of wages unpaid and tell the autorities to contact labour relations.

From that little triad, the school has no foreign teachers to work, investigation by the police and the labour board, and no more business from his precious students and parents from lack of teachers and investigations.

[lesza]

Here's an update after spending the better part of a day in the womb of labour and civil law offices in Suwon, Korea: I am basically f*ed in terms of contract and labour law. It's not all bad news however, I did get my airfare and deposit transferred to my account today. Gee, I guess a phone call from the public prosecutor's office to the dictator doesn't really hurt!

Catalina and I learned a lot today, so I hope we can pass on some gems that will live forever in the minds and hearts of sansangnims across Korea... here's the low down. (forgive me if I get some of the finer points wrong, it has been a rough day)

Catalina's complaint of unfair treatment at dismissal will be heard by the labour board and stands a reasonable chance of being successful. There is a glitch in the definition of six months (immigration definition versus labour definition) that may affect the outcome which can then go to the civil courts. Please PM Catalina for specifics, she will likely post on this after the hearing next week.

My claim cannot be heard by the Labour Board because in order to qualify for severance several conditions of the workplace must apply. Here are the ones that affect me as the situations do not comply:

a workplace must have at least five employees for the severance laws to apply,

when I began my contract there were only three teachers AND

a worker must complete 365 consecutive days of work to qualify for severance under labour laws

My E2 was issued on September 1, 2002 and I worked until August 29, 2003. August 30 and 31 were Saturday and Sunday and even though my E2 was valid until September 1, the final Saturday and Sunday DO NOT COUNT in the calculation of 365 consecutive days of work!!! I would have had to work beyond the expiry date of my E2 in order to meet that requirement. This is an example where immigration and labour law do not mesh.

This is logic I still cannot wrap my head around.

After this shock I went to the district prosecutor's office for legal aid and showed what I had. I unfortunately signed a very bad contract when I came here (out of ignorance and a misguided Canadian sense of socialism, apology, and compliance ) The original contract did not have a severance clause. Despite this my director repeatedly assured me that I would get one, as it was Korean custom(!) What I did have was a note from my director with the final calculations of what he owed me, including the severance amount and even severance tax deductions!! Sneaky Pete only signed his copy of this note however, not mine! I'm such a foooool!! And yes, in hindsight I should have held on to the apt for the whole amount, ahhh looking back. But we are bunkered down in Catalina's apt and not giving it up without a fight. Anyway, I digress...

The public lawyer was great and explained to me that despite the final calculations, my original contract supersedes any (half-a**) addendum to it. Because there was no severance clause in the original one there was little he could do but send me back to the next level of law-- the Labour Board where we knew I already fell through the slats on the above mentioned technicalities. He did make a pursuasive call to the w*nker director and confirmed that he would fulfill his other obligations to me for airfare and deposit. Three hours later the monies were safely nestled in my account. So, all in all, I am up one plane ticket and down one bonus... good enough to leave, not good enough to ever want to return (at least until the bitter taste leaves my mouth and preferrably invades the orifices of the anti-Christ)

Thanks to all of you for your helpful replies... Son Dureo you've given me a few new ideas and yes, we are starting to work on the new guy. He's too cool to get stuck there... good DJ from England. You may hear us asking for help on that one (process, and a place for him to stay when he does a runner to cancel his E2 at immigration and looks for a new job, etc) Gord, we'll be in town on Saturday if you wanna come out and play! AND ANYONE ELSE!! MAck, that's funny about the Sean Hayes thang because I had actually cut out one of his articles on severance pay and showed it to my dictator when he was hedging on paying me (but the 3 employee rule trumps Sean's article -- boohoo) And Rapier, you rock my world! Don't ever stop...

On the way to every embassy list in town... OH SUNG SIK ENGLISH CLUB franchise, Youngtong, SUWON (owner KIM KUN HOON, wife RACHEL LIM)

[lesza]

Well after the labour board hearing today, where Catalina managed to get some money out of the dictator, we skipped merrily off to the tax office to collect our pension monies that had presumeably been accumulating for one year (in my case).

The shock, the horror when we discovered that there was no pension money!! Our retirement years flashed before our very eyes! What would the Canadian government say? Indeed, what would our children (that we have yet to bear) say when we hit them up for a place to live in our golden years?? All this because the evil wangjannim withheld our contributions!! (In fact, never deducted them, and never surrendered them to the tax office.)

We begged and pleaded with the, by then collection of three officers, not to punish us for lack of said contributions and then slyly pointed out that the w*nker was not accounting for our salaries accurately either! He was skirting the regular taxes too! WEll, that got them in a bit of a flurry -- checking tables for a few moments. They even got so far as to dial the hagwon's number to contact the dictator, until we quickly encouraged them to curtail that pursuit as they would likely only enfuriate the already irritated tyrant, who had just left the labour board hearing relieved of some of his money.

After the amusement died down, we gathered our things, content in the knowledge that while the tax officers would not be rushing out to confine him for tax evasion... we had struck another blow to the fragile hull Oh Sung Sik sinking ship.


PS the rest of you posters, don't mind me, please continue to flame away.