Korean Court Rules In Favor of Severance Pay for Foreign English Teachers

Here is a win in the courts for the foreign English teacher community in South Korea:

A court has recognized foreign tutors at a private language institute as “employees” entitled to severance pay, rejecting the institute’s claim that they were self-employed.

Judge Oh Sang-yong of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of five native English teachers at an unidentified private language institute in Seoul, Monday.

He ordered the institute to offer them 180 million won in severance pay and other unpaid allowances.

The institute had claimed the tutors were”self-employed” teachers paid by the hour so they were not entitled to severance pay. But the court ruled that the five were “employees” who had to act upon their contracts regulating their working hours, curriculum and other details. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I would think the hagwons in South Korea will just modify the contracts in some way to get around this court ruling.