Leave Policy
Leave policy may change without notice.
Each time you are not at your designated workplace(s) during normal working hours, you must submit a request on NEIS to record this event. This includes personal errands, vacations, emergencies, sick leave, business trips, and unauthorized absences. These requests must be approved by your respective school's leading officer(s). One type of leave cannot be substituted for another. For example, you may not request sick days in advance in order to extend your vacation. Also note that any unused leave expires at the end of each contract i.e., it does not carry over when you renew your contract.
For leave requests that encompass your main and visiting schools' days, you will only need to submit one NEIS request to your main school for approval. Be sure to subtract weekends and national holidays (red days) from the total count.
Personal Leave and Annual Leave (Vacation)
All GETs are entitled to 26 paid vacation days. GETs working at the English Experience Center and Online English Center are also entitled to 4 extra days (30 days total).
Paid leave days do not include weekends. It is recommended to take 11 days during the shorter summer vacation period and 15 days during the longer winter vacation period. If you save all of your vacation days for winter and you have end up with 15 days of winter camp, you risk having very little flexibility with your travel plans.
Please consider the schedules of all your schools. Academic calendars are often distributed at the beginning of the year and are usually posted on each school's websites under "학사일정". Your paid leave requests should not disrupt the normal operations of your workplaces. Be especially careful about school vacation programs as their schedules take precedence over yours.
For long vacations, you should plan to go during school vacation periods (방학) and come back before the start of the next semester. Keep in mind that English camps and related duties take precedence. Some schools may require teachers to come in for several days mid-February for new-year preparations, including mandatory training, tidying up classrooms, moving offices, etc. Since we often have to take long, expensive flights to see our families and friends, you'll likely want to start talking about vacation programs with your schools about two months in advance. It is important that you do not book any flights until your paid leave days have been approved on NEIS.
If you have any schedule conflicts where you feel that the contract is not being upheld, please contact the GET Program Manager.
Travelling Abroad
Any time you travel abroad during your contract, you will need to complete the Application Form for Travel Abroad (see Files). This means that if you travel out of Korea on a long weekend this form is required, and not only when you travel abroad during your paid vacation. Your school should retain this document for their records. This form needs to be submitted a minimum of 15 days in advance of the date of your departure. You might be required to submit proof of exit and entry from immigration, so please keep this in mind.
While it may seem like a strange practice to inform your employer of your private travels, it is common practice in Korea and is required for all teachers, not just GETs.
For more information about Paid Leave, please refer to Article 14 of your contract.
Early Personal Leave
Sometimes you will need to leave school early (or leave school and come back) to conduct personal errands such as visiting the bank. A total of 8 hours of early personal leave within one contract period will add up to one paid leave day. Anything less than 8 hours will not take away from your paid leave. Typically, the accumulation of early personal leave is calculated towards the end of your contract. If at this stage your early personal leave adds up to 8 hours or more and you have already taken your allotted paid vacation days, the early personal leave becomes unpaid. The amount will be deducted from the final pay of your contract.
For more information about Early Personal Leave, please refer to Article 14, Clause 6 of your contract.
Other Holidays
GETs are not required to work on any of Korea's national public holidays, or "red days". These days do not count towards your paid leave. Please note that if a red day falls on a weekend, it is not customary in Korea to take off the nearest business day as is typical in many Western countries. Red days include Buddha's birthday, Children's Day, Christmas Day, etc.
Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (Autumn Harvest or "Korean Thanksgiving") are included as red days and the dates change each year based on the lunar calendar. It is common to leverage your paid leave with red days if they occur within the school vacation period.
Labor Day (May 1st) or Worker's Day is a holiday entitled to GETs as per Article 7, Clause 1 of your contract. Please note that many of your co-teachers are not entitled to this holiday and may be unaware that you are. Please inform them politely that you are not required to work. Show them the contract or have them contact us should they need further confirmation.
Discretionary Days (School Foundation, Suneung, etc.)
Some schools may schedule discretionary days off to make Chuseok a little longer, to celebrate the school's founding anniversary, or to simply have a three-day weekend during the months with no national holidays. As of 2021, you are required to use paid leave for such days.
Sick Leave
You are entitled to 11 days of sick leave per contract period. A doctor's note (진단서) is required for each leave request after the first cumulative 24 hours (3 full days of sick leave). Securing a typical doctor's note (진단서) may cost up to 20,000 KRW. If your doctor advises you take off multiple consecutive days, one doctor's note will suffice. As of 2022, treatment confirmation notices (진료확인서) and written prescriptions (처방전) can also be submitted in lieu of the doctor's note. Only one of the three documents will suffice.
Korean teachers tend to shy away from taking sick days and still come to school if they are sick, with the exception of something very serious. Please keep this in mind when deciding if it is necessary to take a sick day. Having said this, your health is important so please take a sick day if you need it. Any sick days taken and the reasons therefore are listed in your evaluations.
UPDATE: COVID-19
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 please DO NOT go to work. Instead, inform your co-workers that you will need to self-isolate and get tested as soon as possible. Most hospitals, health centers, and ENT clinics provide this test. If you try to get tested without any symptoms, they will charge you full price for the exam, approx. 90,000 KRW. After testing, wait for your results and an official document or text. In the event of a positive test result, remain quarantined until the required self-isolation period has passed, usually 5 or 7 days.
If for any reason you are required to take more than 11 days of sick leave, anything over 11 days will be unpaid, and your paycheck at the end of your contract cycle will be prorated accordingly. If a doctor's note is not submitted officially for sick leave after the first initial 24 hours of use, your paycheck will also be prorated accordingly as the sick leave is not technically excused. Sick leave totalling over 30 days is grounds for termination of contract (see Article 18, Clause 1, Point 10). If you have a serious issue and need to take multiple sick days, please contact the GET Program Manager.
Full Sick Day
If you need to take a full day of sick leave, you are required to notify your co-teacher(s) before the commencement of duties. Please ensure that you send any relevant teaching materials to your co-teacher so that he/ she has enough time to prepare if necessary.
Partial Sick Day
Sometimes you might need to leave school early because of illness or a doctor's appointment. The number of hours which you will be gone from school is recorded. A total of 8 hours will add up to one day of sick leave. Anything less than 8 hours over the course of the contract period will not take away from sick leave.
For more information about Sick Leave, please refer to Article 15 of your contract.
Special Leave
Special leave refers to events such as your wedding, maternity leave or a death in the family. Each circumstance is allocated a certain number of days which are paid.
For more information about Special Leave, please refer to Article 16 of your contract.
Business Trips
Any time you are required to leave school for an official reason, it will be recorded as a business trip and will not count towards your paid leave. Official reasons include attending workshops, official meetings or visits to the GET Program Manager to collect official documents at the end of your contract. If you are required to attend a meeting or workshop, an official document will be sent to your school to excuse you.
Cultural Experience Days (문화체험의 날), Health Days (건강의날), "Workshops" and other school-sanctioned afternoon teambuilding events should be recorded as a business trip. Often, someone in your school or department will include you in a group request in NEIS so you may not have to do anything.
Unpaid Leave
Your contract allows for 7 calendar days of unpaid leave. Unpaid leave during the school year is only granted under special circumstances such as the wedding of an immediate family member or a death in the family*. You will need to receive permission from your principal to use unpaid leave. You will need to submit proof of unpaid leave, such as a wedding photo with you in attendance or a published obituary.
Unpaid Leave during school vacation can also be requested so long as it does not interfere with the normal operation of summer camp, after-school classes, or any other school plans. School vacation unpaid leave also requires prior permission from your principal.
As unpaid leave is 7 calendar days, please note this includes the weekend. Thus, if your unpaid leave runs over the period of a weekend, these days are deducible from your pay even though you do not typically work on weekends. The amount will be taken off from your salary for the month in which unpaid leave is taken. This will also affect your severance calculations.
*Although a death in the family is accounted for in special leave, realistically a GET may need more days off, especially if they will need to travel home. Days over and above the days allotted in special leave will count as unpaid.
For more information about Unpaid Leave, please refer to Article 14, Clause 5 of your contract.
Menstrual Leave
Female employees are entitled to one day per month of Unpaid Leave for this purpose. No doctor's note is required. It should be entered as 기타 - 기타 with the reason 생리휴가.
Unauthorized Absences
An unauthorized absence includes any time a GET misses work without prior approval. Unauthorized absences are unpaid and include absences due to the GET's own negligence and/or circumstances outside the GET's control (such as a flight delay).
As per Article 18, Clause 1, Point 6 of the contract, if a GET misses 3 or more working days without consent from his/her school, this is grounds for termination of contract.