Well, we are apparently fired. We got a call from our Director, Jane, this morning. She was responding to the email that we sent her last night. She told us that she was waiting to hear from someone (Jo's boss) at LG about the exact details of the problem. Note that Jo told us that she told Jane what would happen to us on Tuesday. Jane said that if LG did not want us to come back she didn't want to employ us anymore. We told her that if she did fire us she would have to give us thirty days paid written notice, and that we also demanded Visa release papers. She tried to convince us that she did not have to do these things and tried to withhold our April paycheque (which was due May 10th). We have studied our contract quite closely and have consulted a couple Korean lawyers. We are well aware of what we are entitled to and what our rights are. We told her once again what we expected and that we would go to the Labour Board if need be.

Jane called us back less than a minute after the first phone call. Who knows what she did in that time. She told us that she had decided to fire us even if LG wanted us back. This is obviously a load of crap and this decision was made a while ago - but I digress. After this phone call I once again received a call from Mr. Han, our recruiter. He told me that I was going to be fired, yadda, yadda, yadda. I told him we deserved thirty days paid written notice, yadda, yadda, yadda. He tried to say that because "it was our fault" we would not get those things. While I (and the lawyers) would disagree with this position, it doesn't matter. Our contracts, and Korean labour law, state that we get thirty days written notice, regardless of how or why the employer ends the contract. I told him this, then had to actually explain to him what written notice meant (Well, Jane has to write us a letter...).

Following my conversation with Mr. Han, after which he obviously talked to Jane, we received another phone call from Jane. She was now much more flexible about our demands. We believe she is on thin ice regarding the legality of her position (We have contracts with her, yet we work at LG) so the last thing she wants to do is go to the Labour Board - especially if it means dragging LG into the debacle. This is a good thing for us. Hopefully we will be able to settle this as smoothly as possible and move on to other positions. I would really like to continue teaching my students, but I'm not about to make myself a doormat by blindly following my boss' stupid policies. Many people, like Luz, don't seem to have a problem doing this. We've already researched a couple more positions, and we will probably stay in Gumi. Who knows what's in store for us next.