Jon's note: 
The author of this wanted to be anonymous.  I am reluctant to 
include recruiters on this site because, honestly speaking, I 
suspect that ALL of them would be blacklisted.  However, if you 
have an experience with recruiters which you would like to share, 
please let me know.

I have made a few of my own comments in this piece.



Jon



Hi Jon. Thanks for the reply. What you said sounds
like a good idea to me, namely that posting what I
said about the recruiting firm XXXXXX Ltd. would be a
good warning to people thinking about teaching English
in Korea. It should let people know what to expect
from a recruiting firm in Korea. I have more I'd like
to add to what I previously e-mailed you about them
though.

I wrote some more about the recruiting firm on Dave’s 
ESL Café in the Korea Job Discussion Forum in response 
to some people’s criticism on Dave's Cafe of my criticism 
of them. Here’s an edited copy of what I wrote on Dave's 
with the username Novalis: 

First, I’ll post the contract XXXXXX Ltd. sent me and
my complaints and questions about it. Then I’ll make
some more comments about them after that. It
should be noted that the employer (language school)
wrote this contract and not XXXXXX Ltd., and in fact
it is the language school’s contract. But it should
also be noted that XXXXXX Ltd. was doing business with
this employer, XXXXXX Ltd. sent me this contract, and
XXXXXX Ltd. would have gotten compensation ($$$$) from
this employer if I would have signed the contract.

I took the following statements from the contract that
they sent me. I’m certainly not going to sign it,
but I have some questions and comments about it. 

Quote:
3. TEACHING HOURS 
1)The number of regular teaching hours will be minimum
30 hours per week / 120 hours per month.(N.B; This is
the actual number of teaching hours and class
preparation time and break time are not included). 
2)In the event that the actual number of teaching
hours scheduled for any particular month is below
hours, the Employee will be required to perform
company-related work such as editing, creating
dialogues, interviewing, etc to meet the guaranteed
hour for that month or the following month. 
3)Class will be held from Monday to Friday. 
4)Occasionally if asked by the manager, the Employee
agrees to take some training to make his class better.

5)Classes and teaching will be scheduled in accordance
with the needs of Party A. 

<Jon's note: Party A is employer.>

The Employee’s monthly teaching schedules will fall
somewhere between 6:30am and 9:20pm, based upon the
guaranteed hour per month. 

The Employee is entitled to taking specified breaks
during working hours for a meal and rest (the “Break”)
at such time as shall be the schedule specified by the
employer. In arranging the Employee’s monthly teaching
schedule, the employer shall make every effort to
arrange classes so that the break shall fall in the
middle of the Employee’s working day. [end quote]

<Jon's note: The above clause is meaningless.  Here 
the employer can schedule the employee can be ordered to 
work throughout the day beginning at 6:20, 10:AM, 1:PM, 
5:PM, 7:PM, and 8:30 PM.> 

I think it’s noteworthy to point out that they didn’t
mention what my exact schedule would be. The fifth
clause is particularly interesting: “Classes and
teaching will be scheduled in accordance with the
needs of Party A”, i.e., the employer. Apparently, I
don’t have a say in this. 

Quote:
1) The employer agrees to support medical insurance.
The employer pays fifty percent of medical insurance
premiums for the employee and the other fifty percent
should be paid by the employee. The employee’s
insurance premium will be deducted from his/her
monthly salary. Dental and pre-existing conditions
(diseases) are not covered by the insurance.

What percentage of my monthly salary would this
deduction for medical insurance be? It's interesting
that they didn't specify that in the contract! 


<Jon's note: You do not want to hear the stories I have 
about Korean medical care or dental care.>

Quote:
2)South Korean income taxes will be withheld
automatically from the employee’s monthly salary.
Income tax on the monthly salary runs at about 3.3%.
Is it true what is stated about income taxes above? 
Quote:
4)The employee is required by law to participate in
the Korean pension plan. 4.5% will be deducted from
the instructor’s salary and put into the pension plan.
The employer will contribute 4.5% to the fund, for a
total of 9%. This amount of money (9%) will be
returned to the employee when the employee’s contract
is finished and he/she leaves Korea. (It depends upon
the official agreement between Korea and Party the
employee’s country.) [end quote]

What’s going on here? This just doesn’t sound right.
So they take out some percentage I’m not even sure of
for medical insurance, 3.3% for income taxes, and 4.5%
for a pension that I will never use? Do I really have
a chance at all of receiving this money deducted for
the national pension plan back when I leave Korea? If
so, then how long would it take, and how much would
the process cost me? What would it involve?
Furthermore, if I stayed in Korea for another year and
didn’t “leave Korea” as the contract says, then would
I still be able to get this money back? 


<Jon's note: I believe the only way to get the money back 
is if one stays in Korea for some 20 years and then collect 
the pension.  In fairness, as I understand, if a Korean works 
in the US, that person also has to pay into the US pension plan 
too, but will not be able to collect unless s/he stays in the 
country for the necessary amount of time.>


Quote:

12. REVISION, CANCELLATION AND TERMINATION OF THE
CONTRACT 
1)Both parties will abide by the contract and will
refrain from revising, 
canceling, or terminating the contract without mutual
consent. 
2)The contract can be revised, terminated or canceled
with mutual consent. Before both parties have reached
an agreement, the contract should be strictly
observed. [end quote]

About #2, if we’d be mutually revising or canceling
the contract, then how could we be strictly observing
it? I take it “strictly observing” means “following”,
does it not, or am I misinterpreting this? 

<Jon's note: A constant stress for foreigners' working 
in Korea is the constant renegotiation of their contract.>

Quote:
3)The employer has the right to cancel the contract
with a written notice to the employee under the
following conditions; 
(1)The employee does not fulfill the contract or does
not fulfill contract obligations according to the
terms stipulated, and fails to amend after the
employer has pointed it out. 
(2)According to the doctor’s diagnosis, the employee
cannot resume normal work after a continued 1-week
sick leave. 

<Jon's note: This clause is probably illegal.  However 
being a foreigner you have little legal recourse.>

(3)If many of the employee’s students keep on
complaining about class or if an unacceptable drop of
number of student enrollment for the 3 consecutive
months occurs because of the employer’s improper
teaching skills. [end quote]

That third one is a nice little clause, isn’t it? They
even have the gull to write into the contract that if
I don’t keep the students happy they will fire me!!
Forget teaching. Apparently, this employer thinks it’s
more important for me to be a good entertainer that
keeps the students happy! Who ever said that a good
teacher had to be well liked by the students? 

<Jon's note: Much of ESL is Korea is putting on the clown 
suit and entertaining the clientele.>

This is also a good example of how Korean language
school manager’s bad English can make the terms of a
contract unclear or ambiguous. “The” 3 consecutive
months? Which 3 consecutive months? I suppose they
mean any 3 consecutive months that I would be employed
there. 

“The” is a definite article. They said “the” 3
consecutive months, but they didn’t say which ones.
"The" 3 consecutive months is different from "any" 3
consecutive months that I would be employed there. 

Alright, just to clarify, I don’t have it out for
XXXXXX Ltd. It’s just that I wouldn’t recommend them. 

<Jon's note: I am not convinced this outfit is different 
from any other recruiter, which is why the name is blotted 
out.>


I have the right to my opinion. From what I’ve read and
from my experience, she just basically hooks you up
with an employer who’s looking to hire. Well, if the
job turns out to be bad, then she has to take some of
the responsibility. If a car sales representative
sells you a car, and the car turns out to be a lemon,
then he/she could just blame the manufacturer or the
previous owner or you. This, however, would not be the
responsible thing to do. It’s the same principle with
recruiters. XXXXXX Ltd. is a business. It's main
interest is making money. (The owner) herself tried to get
me to work for another business, whose main interest
is also making money. Personally, it bothers me to be
seen more as a tool to be used so some people that are
well-off (these language school owners and
administrators) can stay that way and get even more
money in their bank accounts, rather than as a teacher
with the freedom to do what I want in the classroom.
I’m not a sales representative, and I’m not a tool.
I’m a teacher, and if that means that I wouldn’t be
able to work for 99% of the employers in Korea, then I
won’t work for them. Furthermore, the contract they
sent me was dubious, as I just showed above. Also, I
got two different stories from them about what my
exact schedule would be and a different one from one
of the teachers at the school – That’s a total of
three. Why is it so hard to tell someone what their
work schedule will be? Surely, it can’t purely be just
because of cultural differences! Is it so hard to be
straightforward and thorough? Also, first she told me
that I would have to make my decision by Monday of the
next week. Then she said it would have to be by Friday
of that week. Then once I waited past Friday, she told
me I needed to make my decision by Tuesday. So which
of the three days was it? See where I’m going with
this. Where’s the consistency? Let me add that when I
asked for the e-mail address of the teacher who was
leaving the language school -- this teacher had been
fired, by the way -- she told me she didn’t think it
was necessary for me to talk to more than the one
teacher I had already e-mailed back and forth with who
was pretty happy with her job. Obviously, she was just
trying to put pressure on me to sign, so I couldn’t
think things through.