Footprints Recruiting

Our boss wants us to leave 2 weeks early as he has a cheap ticket. We don't want to be out the pay. what can we do?

Interesting. Are you saying that you want the final two weeks pay that you would have received or are you saying that you want to make sure you get the end of contract bonus or severance pay that you are entitled to from the contract?

If it's the pay you are after and your boss is trying to save a few bucks on the airfare I am also guessing he/she will want to save the $ on your salary at the same time... maybe not, perhaps talk to him/her about it if it concerns you... I understand that you might have been counting on that money for repayments or for travel. Legally you can be let go if the appropriate amount of notice is provided to you and because you are being let go without just cause you will still have your contractual entitlements like pro-rated bonus and potentially severance pay... I reckon your best bet if this is the case is for you to simply explain to your boss why the money is important to you. Perhaps the savings on airfare won't be worth it to him/her or perhaps he/she will have a different solution.

The important thing here is your approach. Go in calmly. This really may not be a terrible injustice meant to screw up your life. This might just be your boss trying to save the school or this might just be a straightforward business decision. People get fired all the time back home for cost-cutting reasons similar to this. If you are a Footprints teacher be sure to communicate directly with your Footprints Placement Coordinator about this so he or she can try to assist you and so he or she can be aware of the situation.

In terms of a severance package or bonus payment, in Korea, legally if you do not complete a 1 year contract you are not entitled to the month salary as severance. That being said, if your boss is the one encouraging you to go you could get it all in writing and you trust him or her it could be a deal for you.

Make sure you get your salary to date minus the 2 weeks you won't be working.

Make sure you get your severance pay for each year of service.

Often employers will hold your severance until they are confident you haven't left them with any outstanding bills. When they signed for your visa they basically took responsiblity as a Guarantor for you while you are in Korea. This means cell bills or internet bills or water or gas or telephone could all come back to them. We both know that often these employers are stuck with the bill in the end so in an effort to protect themselves some will take deposits from your first couple pay packets, 100 or 200,000 or some will withhold your severance.

Make sure you're clean.
- get your final bills
- pay them
- show them to the boss

Find out all you have to do to ensure you will get the money owing to you BEFORE you leave.

One other potential piece of advice would be to nominate someone at the school as a Guarantor for you. Any other teachers there that you trust and who trust you?

If so, show them all the bills you owed and paid. Leave them with a bit of money to cover an incidentals that you forgot about and tell your boss to pay you out everything and that this person will cover anything else that comes in and will get the money from you. Make sure this person goes with you to the boss and make sure you pay them back for anything...

On a personal note I personally did this for a teacher from Saskatchewan and he stung me for about $400USD. Not a nice thing to do. Integrity... he had none. Karma... it'll come back to you Jason.