Teachers Rebel in Gangnam
By Kang Shin-who, Bryan Kay
Staff Reporters
Native English teachers in Gangnam, southern Seoul, are up in arms over a change made to their contracts related to housing provision by the district office.
Some claim they are being forced to sign a unilaterally amended contract stripping them of housing.
But the Gangnam District Office said the complaint was unfounded because they will be given expenses.
The district office has recruited annually some 100 native English speakers for elementary and secondary schools in the affluent district, where housing costs are expensive.
Previously, the office offered housing to the foreign teachers along with a monthly salary of 2.5 million won ($2,130). But it told the teachers that from next year it will provide a housing allowance of 900,000 won per month, citing the burden of large housing deposits.
``Although we will still continue to offer housing fees, the foreign teachers are apparently having problems in adjusting to a new contract,'' said an official from the district office.
However, one foreign teacher, who asked not to be identified, said the teachers are angry after being coerced into signing the new contract.
``A lot of people are really angry about this because it was forced on us very suddenly,'' the insider said. "One day we got an e-mail and two days later the Korean liaison teacher came to us with the rewritten contract.
``It leaves us out of the housing that the district provided. It's not that they're not offering us anything ― there's now a monthly stipend ― but none of us can afford to live in Gangnam and there's also the huge expense of the key money.
``Everyone is now going to head for the Itaewon area because it's all we can afford, and we'll be competing against one another for the same places.''
According to one source, a group of teachers plan on taking the case to the labor board over what they feel is a grossly unfair amendment to their contracts, carried out without their knowledge.
Another said, ``The point is that we are being forced to sign a rewritten contract. That's why we are getting the labor board involved.
``From the teachers' perspective, we are pretty angry, but we can't speak out as we may lose our jobs because the school could see it as disrespecting them. Everyone has a different contract, but basically we're all being evicted.''