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Employment Contracts | |
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Holidays while Teaching
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There has been some confusion lately regarding what the situation is with holidays in Korea. What is paid? What is not paid? What Koreans get and what foreigners get? What the law says and what a contract means? First, do your homework for negotiating your contract BEFORE you come to Korea or sign a contract. Too many teachers take no notice of what is actually being written in the contract, and if it is signed and put into immigration, then you have agreed to holidays as written in your contract. Don't plead ignorance later and say you were told something else and don't blame your recruiter or director. It is up to you to get the answers, and see the correct things written in your contract. The written word is important. The Korean labour law was written for KOREANS (strange that). There is no separate law for foreigners! Most employers of foreign workers adapt the holiday rules, often more to the benefit of foreigners, than the opposite. Maybe we are all so used to the 'cosy' holidays in our own countries we think we should get the same holidays in Korea? What happens in our Western countries when we get demanding with an employer? Can we run away and post a message against them on an Internet discussion site because we were not allowed a day or week off at a time we wanted? NO, because there are some decent slander and liable laws in our countries. Lawyers would have a field day making money!! The Koreans also have a bonus pay system in their labor law. They are entitled to extra pay for every 12 full months work they do (no less and no percentage of it for 9 months work etc!). They are given 4 weeks free pay from the employer. This is to a foreigner like 4 weeks holiday pay. We call it a severance pay and feel we are entitled to it (and yes we are). To get 4 weeks extra pay and then walk away from a job is great for a foreigner. This means we can have a 4-week holiday at our employer's expense. We foreigners never think why we were entitled to this extra severance pay? To a Korean it is a bonus for good work. They stay working after 12 months, and often don't have the time off (I am speaking across the general Korean population). They will continue to get the 'bonus' pay each year they stay employed. What other western countries have a similar yearly bonus 'on top of' official holiday pay???? Maybe if you are on a salary and incentive contract perhaps, but not if you are working as a Pizza delivery boy in New York! Hopefully you get some good tips??? The Korean law states that an employee can have one day off a month as paid leave. They often can only take this one day at a time each month. Often there is adherence to a set period of being 'absence free' tied to the bonus of time off for a Korean citizen. Perhaps this is why many sick Koreans go to work, because they don't want to lose their paid holiday day?? If the Korean employee is not sick, then they will be able to get 12 paid days a year. BUT this is for full time work, which in Korea is a 44-hour week. Most teaching contracts are for 25-30 hours a week. Teachers are not on full time contracts, and it is legal to give a percentage of this entitlement. Teachers have a set term 12-month contract but with less than full time hours. Many schools are now writing their own holidays into contracts to fit their classes and opening times (eg. the holiday must be taken at a certain time). By writing their own clauses, they are sometimes giving out MORE than the Koreans are getting. Almost certainly the Korean staff will be getting something different. Maybe they get a special bonus such as paid for Korean public statutory holidays? Don't think, 'what they are getting I should be getting.' Many Korean workers are actually jealous of the Westerners and their holidays in Korea. The law states you get the national holidays as holidays, and don't have to work them, BUT it does not state they are automatically PAID holidays. At no time in the law does it automatically give public holidays as paid to anybody working a 30-hour contract!!! Many directors are actually kind and pay a foreigner for them anyway. PLEASE DON'T just expect payment for them. You have no legal rights to say it is not fair if a friend gets them at his school and you don't. The law is not on your side. Your director is not a bad employer because he is not giving them to you. In 2002 the government cause mayhem when it suddenly designated a World Cup public holiday, because many employers asked their staff to work that day to makeup the correct session hours they had timetabled for. Confusion and anger reigned with no adequate solution except goodwill being applied. TAKING HOLIDAY TIMES: there is no law that states you can take time off when you want to have a planned holiday with your friend etc. Don't push your employer and expect this. There is no law that states that you should get 12 days paid holiday as a 30-hour a week worker or that you can take all 12 days together. You will be expected to fit your holidays and time off into the school program. If you are expecting one full week off (7 days in succession), then think about the impact this has on the school program, and who will cover the classes? Especially if you want to go away with your friend who works at the same school! The school can't legally employ relieving teachers. Any foreign staff must have a visa! Some schools do close down for set weeks of the year in the summer and winter period. If this is the case at your school this is when you will be allocated your holidays. Don't bully, demand or be sour to the director when discussing your holiday entitlement. For centuries the Koreans have learnt to interact under their laws with their employers. Unless a foreigner's law becomes legal in Korea, no foreigner has the right to demand other conditions. Why not try and use adoption, understanding and negotiation when dealing with 'holidays that are paid and holidays that are not.' If you check your own country's laws you will most likely find you are only entitled to 2-4 weeks paid holiday AFTER you have worked 12 months, NOT during the 12 months. Of course you will most likely get your country's public holidays paid for. I am sure you are now aware most Western countries have only a few Public holidays such as Easter and Christmas, Thanks Giving, July 4 etc. In Korea there are often 12-14 public holidays that MUST be taken on the day they fall. You may notice your director shifts his calendar over an extra day or two for session times that encompass holidays. He will not want to miss a day getting paid by his students! He may have even arranged 'catch-up' classes to be taught by you!! Generally the sessions are worked to fit the 120 hours a month and are timetabled around holidays etc. Everyone should take some time to correctly look at his or her own monthly session times, and understand that all schools will be different. You are working in private businesses. There will often be NO consistency, even in franchise situations. Koreans will make things fit. Don't expect labor and employment conditions and laws to emulate any laws and rules from your own country as far as holiday periods are concerned. Many Western countries have almost 'constipated' themselves with 'workers entitlements and rights.' You came to work in Korea (or are coming to work in Korea). Please do some sensible research on what Korean laws are, and think about what Korean people live and work under. This is where you are working and these are now your laws!
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