(Seoul, South Korea)—Foreigners living and working in South Korea are taking new steps to ensure their job security, improve working conditions and advance employee/employer relations. The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) is acting as a hub of information and sharing the story of the second teacher’s union in Korea with its membership.
Evan Lloyd, ATEK member and the President of the newly-formed workplace union, gave this statement regarding the creation of the union:
"The second teacher’s union was approved by the Korean authorities on November 24th. This union is the result of months of collaborative action by five Native English Teachers and Jung Bongsoo, an attorney at the Kangnam Labor Law Firm."
Lloyd also added,
" We saw the formation of our labor union as the best way to achieve positive, stable and normal working conditions and to improve relations between union members and the company. The union is a legal, financial and moral support that allows us to focus on the reason we came to Korea, which is to teach English."
At present there are estimated to be over 20,000 foreign English teachers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the United States, living and working in Korea on E-2 teachers’ visas and countless more on other visa types.
ATEK, which consists of over 1000 members, is a primarily web based support network for foreign teachers in Korea. One of ATEK 's key roles is to collect and distribute information to foreign teachers, primarily information to which they might not otherwise have access. In this instance, ATEK was able to suggest a labor law firm to one of our members which resulted in the firm creating a Legal Assurance package for the member and his co-workers.
While individuals do not need to be members of ATEK to receive these services, the story has been disseminated back to the ATEK membership in the hopes of improving working conditions within South Korea, for both foreign and Korean workers alike.
Further information:
For more information on the union please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For more information on ATEK please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For more information on the Kangnam Labor Law Firm please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it