So you may remember the teacher who helped the university out by taking on numerous extra classes. Then he learned that the university couldn't pay him for all 33 hours he's teaching.
There seemed to be no way around this (which bothers me because it seems that the university doesn't realize how indebted they should feel to him) so he offered to teach 3 hours free and not do office hours (he would be available by appointment only).
The university should have agreed to this right away or offered to take one of his classes. They have done neither.
Posted by James Trotta at March 29, 2005 5:24 AMWell, he should simply not show up for office hours. He's a sucker if he does nothing, absolutely nothing, and further, he sets up a really bad precedent.
At the Uni where I work, things sometimes are dicey, but this is worse than anything I've ever seen. We get asked if we want an overtime hour, or an overtime class, *if* there is one. There is a possibility of one class being added to our schedule, at which point we're paid a pittance in overtime pay, but in general, we are as a group relatively resistant to this so it doesn't happen much. Besides, there are low-ranked Korean professorial staff who are more than happy to take the overtime and demonstrate loyalty to the school, which, unlike for us, can be rewarded down the road. (Not for us since it's been made clear in no uncertain terms none of us are ever going to be up for tenure, and in fact we're not even welcome after 5 years, according to some Uni bylaw.
Speaking of law, what law is it that dictates he cannot be paid? Can the overtime pay be farmed out to the summer session or something? Korean adminstrators are masters at working the system, and they should be able to work this situation, too, if they put their minds to it.
(For example: a co-worker claimed that according to law, employees are to be paid twice a month. Most organizations get around this by paying near mid-month but paying the full month's salary, meaning paying the mid-month and prepaying the end-of-month pay. This may or may not be true, but in any case, it is what that co-worker of mine came up with reviewing an English translation of the Korean Labour Code (ordered from some bookshop online, I think) when one idiot's midnight run brought the rest of the foreign staff's paydate into apparent reconsideration by the Admin people.)
Posted by: gordsellar at April 5, 2005 1:23 PMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.