THISCLOSE

Sometimes Getting There Takes Gumption
My recruiter is meeting with the school director soon. Because I've been talking to current and previous teachers at the school, I've requested a few clauses to be put into the contract - one being; I must have air-conditioning in my apartment. Two being; I won't work split shifts. (the job advertisement said 2:30 - 9:30, and that's what I'm holding him to. Unlike the previous teachers there, I won't let the school rule my life from 6:45 in the morning until 8:30 at night.) And finally; If you're giving me 10 days of vacation (and not letting me choose my own vacations) GIVE ME ALL FREAKING 10 DAYS. The way that the contract reads, all of the days off, including Korean holidays (aren't there supposed to be 13 - 15? I only count 11) are lumped together in one long read-out. I had someone who's worked in Korea go over it and they told me that 1-2 of my 'personal holidays' are scheduled for after I'll be gone! And about three others are in the middle of the week. Even in the US teachers are allowed to take their holidays in combination with weekends for best effect. I do want to see a bit of Korea and maybe some other Asian countries while I'm in the area, people. Next year I'll see if I can't snag a public school job at a school that lets me take the same vacations as a Korean public school teacher.

Also, he (the recruiter) caught several things that I should have in going over the contract - for example the school docking twice my hourly wage from my pay for classes missed (this is illegal under Korean Labor Law - they can only dock my hourly wage). Also, if I would need to leave for any personal reason, there is a line in a clause stating that I would have to stay until another teacher is found to replace me. With the reputation of this school among the foreign teaching community this could take some time. And a clause stating that if I don't meet all of the teaching criteria (a big list about lesson plans and testing) the school would dock me 50,000 won per month - this is also illegal under Korean Labor Law.
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Long story short, don't take contracts without getting them checked by people familiar with Korean labor laws. Duff Recruiting has been awesome for me so far, but if you're not with a recruiter to to some place like the koreabridge forums or the Contract Posting thread on Dave's ESL Cafe. The Korea Job Discussion forum in general is a good place to check out. EFL-law used to be a good place, too, but now it's gone. ;_;
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The recruiter is meeting with the school owner to go over the revised contract. I'll post more as more comes up.

~KK