Apparently, five teachers working at an after school academy, a "hagwon," have formed a union after what they viewed as mistreatment from their employer. The teachers were apparently forced to work 40 hours instead of 30, without proper overtime compensation.
From The Korea Times story:
'The five founding members decided to set up the union after the employer forced them to work 40 hours per week rather than 30 hours stipulated in their contract.
"Under the contract, the employer is supposed to pay an overtime rate of 15,000 won per hour. But the employer paid nothing,'' Jung told The Korea Times in a phone interview. "In response to complaints about the unpaid overtime, the employer even verbally threatened to fire one of the five, who was a woman.'''
The "Jung" referred to in the story is their attorney.
This is interesting for many reasons. The first being that this is the kind of stuff that 95 percent of us face every single day. Last year, there were numerous times where I worked over my 30 hour limit. The tricky thing about contracts is that they say you are there for 30 classes and also to do other school-related things.
Now, when you're already at your 30-class limit and still making phone calls for the call tests, doesn't that technically put me over? Or how about if I'm judging a speech contest? I can argue that I'm working over my limit if I'm simply preparing a lesson plan.
At my current school, I work my 22 class hours, but still put in a ton more time on preparing for future classes, and even teach an extra parents class every week.
The hagwon directors have sneaky ways to interpret our contracts (if they even remember to keep a copy on file) and get as much as they can out of the employees, no matter what is actually written.
This also makes me wonder if it could possibly spurn a movement by other teachers to try to form unions. I don't know the labor laws of Korean citizens, but I know that President Lee Myung-bak is particularly hard on union employees.
Another thing to consider is that due to the popularity of teaching English in Korea, will this make more employers think twice about bringing over westerners? We're currently in an employers' market with people on waiting lists to find jobs here. Knowing that the threat of forming a union could happen, will it swing the market at all? Or will it make it even tougher to find a job, as more employers don't want to deal with the hassle?
One funny (sad) piece at the end of the article. From the story:
'A total of 22,905 foreign nationals are here on E-2 English teaching visas as of Oct. 31 this year, according to the Ministry of Justice. Of them, 134 overstayed their visa, the ministry said.'
Haha. Wow. Look how they threw in a little parting shot about teachers overstaying their visas, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with this story.
Anyway, this article gives us something to think about. Will it affect the hiring process? Will it give these teachers an upper hand? Or will they simply bring tougher working conditions upon themselves?
"Under the contract, the employer is supposed to pay an overtime rate of 15,000 won per hour. But the employer paid nothing,'' Jung told The Korea Times in a phone interview. "In response to complaints about the unpaid overtime, the employer even verbally threatened to fire one of the five, who was a woman.'''
The "Jung" referred to in the story is their attorney.
This is interesting for many reasons. The first being that this is the kind of stuff that 95 percent of us face every single day. Last year, there were numerous times where I worked over my 30 hour limit. The tricky thing about contracts is that they say you are there for 30 classes and also to do other school-related things.
Now, when you're already at your 30-class limit and still making phone calls for the call tests, doesn't that technically put me over? Or how about if I'm judging a speech contest? I can argue that I'm working over my limit if I'm simply preparing a lesson plan.
At my current school, I work my 22 class hours, but still put in a ton more time on preparing for future classes, and even teach an extra parents class every week.
The hagwon directors have sneaky ways to interpret our contracts (if they even remember to keep a copy on file) and get as much as they can out of the employees, no matter what is actually written.
This also makes me wonder if it could possibly spurn a movement by other teachers to try to form unions. I don't know the labor laws of Korean citizens, but I know that President Lee Myung-bak is particularly hard on union employees.
Another thing to consider is that due to the popularity of teaching English in Korea, will this make more employers think twice about bringing over westerners? We're currently in an employers' market with people on waiting lists to find jobs here. Knowing that the threat of forming a union could happen, will it swing the market at all? Or will it make it even tougher to find a job, as more employers don't want to deal with the hassle?
One funny (sad) piece at the end of the article. From the story:
'A total of 22,905 foreign nationals are here on E-2 English teaching visas as of Oct. 31 this year, according to the Ministry of Justice. Of them, 134 overstayed their visa, the ministry said.'
Haha. Wow. Look how they threw in a little parting shot about teachers overstaying their visas, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with this story.
Anyway, this article gives us something to think about. Will it affect the hiring process? Will it give these teachers an upper hand? Or will they simply bring tougher working conditions upon themselves?
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