Recently I got an email question from a foreign teacher working for a Korean private university. He’s wondering why the university is insisting on a retirement pension plan instead of the severance payment.
There is an act called Pension for Private Teachers and Staff Act(PPTSA) in Korea, which regulates severance payment issues in private schools. As a matter of law, PPTSA is applied prior to the GWRBA(Guarantee of Workers’ Retirement Benefits Act) and it allows the private schools to set a retirement pension plan for its employees instead of the severance payment.
With respect to the relationship between the employment contract and the pension plan under PPTSA, Private Universities usually, pursuant to the PPTSA, put the retirement pension clauses, instead of severance payment, in the Rules of Employment(RE) of its own. As a matter of law, the RE is applied to all the workers in the workplace. That means, if there exists (more…)