Here is some good news for native English teachers:
The top court has ruled that native English teachers working at private language institutes here are eligible for severance pay and annual vacation allowance according to the Labor Standards Act.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an appellate court’s decision to recognize native English instructors as employees protected by the law and thus provide them various allowances.
But the court sent the case back to the Seoul High Court to amend the calculation of such payment.
The lawsuit started in 2015 when eight English teachers sued their language institute demanding unpaid severance pay and allowances in lieu of annual vacation.
The KTU is trying to kick native English teachers out of Korean classrooms:
A union of liberal teachers has called on education authorities to remove all ― if not reduce the number of ― native English teachers from elementary schools in Seoul.
According to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) Wednesday, its Seoul office representatives will soon meet their counterparts from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) to discuss the issue.
“There have been opinions that the quality of some native English teachers’ teaching skills is low, which increases Korean teachers’ workload,” a KTU official reportedly said. “They can be replaced by Korean teachers, given that what they teach is elementary level English.”
In April 2018, the SMOE announced measures to improve the quality of English education in public schools. As part of the reform, the office decided to provide native English teachers to all 557 elementary schools in the city.
With that all said, on this issue I can understand what the KTU is trying to do. If it gets rid of the native-English teachers that opens up hundreds of jobs for Koreans. The kids English education may suffer, but from a union perspective that is probably a low priority to them.
English teachers in Korea got to experience recently “Don’t Molest Students” training and they did not like it:
A seminar on Oct. 20 in Icheon Art Hall for foreign teachers in Gyeonggi Province offers “Tips to Successful Life in Korea.” / Courtesy of Joe McPherson
Foreign English teachers across Gyeonggi Province woke up extra early on Saturday, Oct. 20, many before sunrise, to attend a seminar they were told was mandatory. The seminar, held in the remote provincial town Icheon, started at 8:30 a.m., requiring many teachers from the far-flung corners of the province to find their own way there, as they had to leave before public transportation opened.
Joe McPherson, a longtime resident of Korea on an F-5 permanent resident visa, was up at 6 a.m., leaving behind his Korean wife and children in Gimpo and driving his car to what he called the “Dirty Foreigner Seminar.”
“This isn’t about career enrichment,” said McPherson, a restaurateur and owner of a successful tourism company who teaches on the side to make ends meet. “It’s because of the stereotype that we’re all sexual deviants.” (…………………..)
Throughout the talks, attendees were reminded numerous times not to sexually harass students, although little instruction was given on what sexual harassment was and how to avoid it.
“This reinforces the stereotype that foreigners are by nature potential sexual predators and drug fiends,” McPherson said. “Do teachers really need to be told that molesting children is wrong?” [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link if you want a good laugh for the day.
A handout offering tips for foreign English teachers tells them “Nobody cares about your own loneliness. / Courtesy of Joe McPherson
This sounds more like an attempt to get more teaching jobs for Koreans instead of to native English teachers:
Most English teachers in primary and secondary schools do not believe that having native-speaking assistants is beneficial in cost-effective terms, a recent survey shows.
Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education surveyed 312 teachers ― 212 elementary school teachers and 100 middle school teachers ― who have been partnered with native English-speaking instructors.
More than half of those surveyed cited the native speakers’ low competence, poor attitude, lack of experience and mediocre education benefit. They said the number should be reduced or the program should be abolished.
They said it would be better to train more Koreans to teach English. [Korea Times]
Test of foreigners applying to become English teachers in South Korea may have ended, but a stigma may remain according to this article:
And while organizations like the Korean Federation for AIDS Prevention provides foreigners with HIV/AIDS resources and free, anonymous testing, HIV-positive foreigners are vulnerable to deportation out of the country, as potential “persons carrying an epidemic disease, narcotic addicts or other persons deemed likely to cause danger and harm to the public health” defined in Article 11 of the Immigration Control Act.
According to Michael Solis, a visiting researcher at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the government had deported more than 500 foreigners who were HIV-positive as of 2007. Kwon said that in 2010, following UNAIDS criticism of South Korean travel restrictions, the government stopped banning and deporting foreign teachers with HIV. But for those who test positive, it remains difficult to afford treatment or be hired as teachers and educators, she added.
Stigma around foreigners and HIV/AIDS remains. [Korea Expose]
It makes me wonder how many other Korean schools over the years have been conducting illegal wage skimming of foreign English teachers as well?:
Kyonggi Elementary School has been accused of skimming the wages of eight foreign teachers over several years with a contract clause that turned out to be illegal.
The wages that were taken from the native English teachers amounted to 45 million won ($40,240), with some losing more than 10 million won, according to labor attorney Jung Bong-soo, who represents the victims. They filed a collective complaint with the Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and Labor in March, demanding reimbursement of their losses and replacing current contracts with “fair” ones.
The skimmed income ― 10 percent of their hourly wage ― was transferred to an independent Korean recruiter, who searched for and hired native English teachers on behalf of the private school in Seodaemun, northwestern Seoul.
The recruiter, surnamed Joo, is known to have introduced himself as a school adviser and is said to have drafted the contracts, including the controversial clause. The victims said they had signed their contracts not knowing the clause enforcing the monthly deduction was illegal. Under Korean employment law, giving recruiters a portion of a person’s first salary as an “introduction fee” is legal, but recruiters are not allowed to make regular deductions. [Korea Times]
It is too bad the ROK authorities did not hold these two idiots up and force them to go through the ROK justice system for their shenanigans:
Police booked two drunk expat elementary school teachers who stole a car, according to Busan Saha Police Station on Monday.
Police said the teachers, 26 and 24, stole the car near a residential area at around 2:35 a.m. on Feb. 22 after the owner had forgotten to take out the keys.
Their escapade lasted five minutes because police stopped them at a checkpoint and booked them for drunk driving and driving without a license.
The teachers left the country soon after the incident, avoiding prosecution.
“The teachers had just finished their contract and were set to go home,” a police official said. “Because there were no injuries or deaths, we could not issue an arrest warrant to stop them leaving.” [Korea Times]
