While teaching English at Ahil English School in Korea, I was denied prompt medical care for a life-threatening illness. Then, I was fired for being in the hospital. The Korean authorities I turned to for help endeavoured to incriminate me. I could NOT get a fair trial in Korea. At this point, my only option for reversal of the harmful precedence set on my back is to plead my case openly. Its my hope that the appropriate independent authorities will access and review my evidence. Its the only avenue to justice and protection of the public interest of the ESL community.

2007.05.17 I signed a 12-month contract with my guarantor at Ahil English Language School, Ulsan, South Korea.

2007.05.17 to 2007.06.15 At Ahil, one native English teacher walked out and a second had to leave because he was reputed as not sociable. Ahil was short-staffed. My guarantor tried to bribe me into breaking my contract with a good school to join Ahil sooner. Then she tried to make me teach without a working visa.

2007.06.20 As soon as I moved to Ahil on 2007.06.15, I felt pain in my leg muscles. Attributing it to the strain of cleaning, packing and moving, I ignored it. I started teaching the following week.

2007.06.21 to 2007.06.29 I made several morning visits, by myself, to a nearby hospital and to a family doctor in my guarantors neighbourhood. No one could diagnose me.

2007.07.02 I was diagnosed with a kidney inflammation. By then my legs, ankles and feet were so inflamed that I could barely walk. I was exhausted because the excruciating pain kept me awake all night. This was not consistent with kidney disease, so the kidney specialist who diagnosed me wanted me in the hospital for one week for a kidney biopsy and further testing. He postponed this hospitalization to July 16, allowing my guarantor two weeks to find a substitute teacher to cover my classes for one week. Then he went out of town and the hospital staff mistakenly booked an appointment only for July 16. Unable to read Korean, I didnt know.

2007.07.03 My guarantor was too busy to meet with me on July 02, so I talked to her in her office the next day. I relayed in detail, what the kidney specialist had said. I made it clear to her that he wanted me in the hospital for one week as of July 16 for a kidney biopsy.
I could not read the appointment card the hospital had given me and I asked her to call the hospital because I was having serious communication problems with both the staff and the medical professionals. My guarantor refused to help and broke off communications with me.
A few days later, I asked a teacher whose 12-month term was complete, if she would extend for a week to cover my stay in the hospital. This teacher replied, No. She (My guarantor) has already asked me and I said no. I have already extended once and I cant stay another day. So my guarantor was well aware of my need to be hospitalized for a week on July 16.

2007.07.03 to 2007.07.16 My condition suddenly and quickly deteriorated. I lost about 10 kg. I had palpitations and chills. I was so weak and stiff that I practically crawled in the stairs. The pain was so intense that I never left the school. If the foreign teachers didnt bring me food, I didnt eat. I overdosed on Tylenol, but I continued to teach. When I was not teaching, I was in bed in my apartment upstairs from the school. I told my guarantor and I told her sister, the receptionist, and the foreign teachers who lived next-door to me, I need to be in the hospital. I should be in the hospital. They refused to take me to there.
There were cameras in the stairs and in the classrooms. In the classrooms, I sat with my right foot up, often removing my shoe. In some classes where the air conditioner blew directly onto the teachers desk, I sat at the back of the room because I was too weak and frail to tolerate the cool air, but I was there. I never asked for, nor ever took any days off between June 20 and July 13, 2007. I continued to teach while complaining about exceeding pain.
My guarantor refused to get me prompt medical care. Neither she nor anyone at Ahil looked for a substitute for the week of July 16.
On or about July 10, knowing I was dying, I took several Tylenol tablets and pulling myself from building to building, I painstakingly made my way to the family doctors office. Using my arms, I pulled myself up the stairs to her office. I was in tears from the pain when I reached the reception. Her staff sat me up with pillows under my legs. I was terribly weak. The family doctor was shocked. She said, You are so small. Your face is thin. Your legs so puffy. You need to go to the hospital. I asked her to have me admitted. She insisted that was my guarantors responsibility.
I took more Tylenol and made it as far as the 3rd floor at Ahil. I told my guarantor what The family doctor had said. My guarantor replied, No, you have to teach.
On or about July 11, at about 7:00 p.m. I told her sister, Im in a lot of pain. I dont think I can finish my next three classes. Her sister replied, Keep smiling and walked away refusing to take me to the hospital. I taught one more lesson and realized it was in the interest of the students that I remove myself from class. I gave my books to a Korean teacher and staggered upstairs to my apartment. I was in bed when one of the Koreans came into my room demanding I come downstairs and teach. I replied that I couldnt move anymore.
They knew that I was in terrible shape but they resolved to let me die on the premises.

2007.07.13 I could no longer care for myself. Anticipation of a hospital admission on 2007.07.16 gave me the motivation I needed to finish my weekly schedule. I told my students that I would finally be in the hospital the following week. I was quite loud and persistent in asking my guarantor, in front of everyone to come and check me into the hospital. She refused to come but finally asked the head teacher to go with me.

2007.07.15 It was Sunday. I was in bed correcting my students diaries when my right hand went numb. I could no longer hold my pen. I finished the last three diaries holding the pen with both hands. Then I crept down the stairs, left the diaries on my desk and went back to bed.
That evening, I called the teacher living next door to me, who was in constant communication with my guarantor. I asked her to pack my bag for me. She did. At that time my left hand went to sleep. I told her about it. I told her how scared I was.

2007.07.16 The head teacher and her husband drove me to the hospital. At the hospital, I was so weak that I couldnt manoeuvre the wheelchair. The head teacher reluctantly pushed it. She spoke Korean to everyone at the hospital but would not tell me what was going on. She brought me to the office of the kidney specialist. I realized I was there for another appointment. Until then, I had been very polite, patient and contained.
When I entered the kidney specialists office and realized I would not be admitted to hospital as he had said, I felt exasperated. For a while I sat quietly while the head teacher and the kidney specialist conversed in Korean and then I got angry. My survival instinct took over. I wanted to stay alive. When I argued that I could no longer care for myself, that I was too weak to shop for another hospital and that I needed to be in the hospital, the kidney specialist shot back that I couldnt walk because I needed to see a psychiatrist. He would not make any effort to have me admitted unless I begged, cried and worshipped him. Only when I broke down and cried, degraded and humiliated, did he work with the head teacher to get me on the waiting list.
At the reception, I was asked to sign admission forms. I could not hold the pen, let alone sign my name.
I would find out a year later that the kidney specialist, anxious to cover up the hospitals negligence, had severely slandered me, passing me off as too crazy to be teaching children. Then the head teacher had reported his lies to Ahil, giving the superstitious and ruthless Administration at Ahil an excuse to fire me for being sick.

2007.07.17 I was admitted to hospital with severe anaemia, advanced kidney inflammation(rapid glomeruli deterioration) and nerve disease. My blood pressure and cholesterol levels were dangerously high and my haemoglobin level was dangerously low. I was on the verge of kidney failure. My limbs were grossly inflamed.
While I was in the hospital, no officer of the School contacted me or my doctor. No officer of the School ever visited me or enquired about my condition. One foreign teacher came by one day, promised to return the following Friday but never did.
According to one foreign teacher, Ahil was advertizing my job all over the Internet in July, while I was in the hospital. This teacher was never called to testify.
Ahil hired Sam, a university teacher on summer vacation to teach my classes until the end of August. That was understandable. However, Ahil advertized my job as a 12-month contract on the internet, in July 2007 and secretly signed a replacement agreement with a new teacher in violation of its employment contract with me.

2007.07.27 Following a series of tests and biopsies, I was diagnosed with Microscopic Polyangiitis (MPA) a potentially fatal illness. I was immediately treated intravenously with aggressive drugs that quickly threw the condition into remission.

2007.08.03 I had responded well to medical treatment and was released from hospital.

2007.08.06 Still medicated but fit to teach, I reported for duty. In violation of my employment terms, my guarantor had replaced me without any communication, warning or termination notice. I pleaded with her and offered to work at a lower salary or on a part-time basis. She was ruthless and ordered me to vacate my apartment within two weeks. This apartment was upstairs from the school. To my knowledge, the School was not renting it from anyone.

2007.08.06 to 2007.08.31 I produced two medical certificates from the kidney specialist, attesting I was fit to work. My guarantor refused to reverse her firing. She was very angry because the National Insurance Commission would not refund her portion of my medical insurance premium which she had been obligated to prepay to 2007.08.31. Most native English teachers are enrolled in the National Medical Insurance Program.
Acting as though Microscopic Polyangiitis were contagious, my guarantor demanded I vacate the apartment by 2007.8.22.
I told her that a serious and sudden illness is no cause for dismissal. She replied, So what? Its done. I have no work for you. You have to go.
The wrongful dismissal was committed while I was in the hospital. I was not at Ahil to agree or disagree with it. With no recourse against her abuse of power and wrongful dismissal, I said, OK, its done, so I have to accept that but, according to our contract you agreed to give 20 working days of notice. Failing that, you should compensate me in lieu of this 20-day notice to help me recover from the prejudice youre causing me. She refused to do this and threatened to sue me for being sick.
I called City Hall and explained my tenant-landlord predicament to an English-speaker. Then a Korean representative from City Hall called my guarantor and told her to postpone my eviction until 2007.08.25. She obeyed him.

I found a new job and signed a contract on 2007.08.20 with another School in Ulsan. Korean Immigration requested proof from my new employer, that I had in fact been fired and therefore was available to work at this new School. I had been fired while in the hospital in July.

2007.08.24 My guarantor issued a release letter to my new employer about a week after I signed the contract. THIS WAS NOT A TERMINATION NOTICE. THE TERMINATION OF MY SERVICES WAS IN JULY. I WAS TAKEN OFF PAYROLL ON 2007.07.12. I NEVER AGREED TO THIS TERMINATION.

2007.09.01 I started working at another Academy. From that date to 2009.04.03 I never took any sick time off work. Fearing the strain of pushing through a claim with the Busan Labour Relations Commission located in another city would cause a relapse of the MPA, I postponed this action to a later date.

2007.11.12 The Ulsan Labour Office ordered Ahil to pay me the one days wages by which I had been short-paid. The breach of my employment contract was not of their jurisdiction. For that, I appealed to the Busan Labour Relations Commission.

2008.Jan After jerking me around for three months, an associate of the Busan Labour Relations Commission issued the name of the appropriate contact at the Commission. By then, the time for filing had expired.
The Commission did rule that I had in fact been wrongfully dismissed and treated unfairly, but refused to provide remedy because the time for processing the complaint had expired. The decision was written in Korean and I was never notified in English. A Korean friend interpreted the document for me in February 2009.

2008.05.15 to 05.18 A former Ahil teacher, who had been given a job where my guarantors husband worked, posted slanderous lies about me on the Internet. He posted these at the request of my guarantor who gave him the false information for posting. The slander included a claim that I had nothing but a foot injury and had suddenly disappeared, leaving Ahil short-staffed. In fact Ahil was short-staffed before I ever joined them. Long before I ever filed the lawsuit (July), this former teacher confidently announced that I had lost it.
A few months later, this employee was convicted and fined for defamation. In retaliation, my guarantor fabricated a criminal charge against me. She had written me an email warning of her determination to have me incriminated and deported. She also indicated that she would win any lawsuit in Ulsan because, as she stated in an email, I was not worth defending. Several months later, her charges against me were dismissed for lack of real evidence.

2008.07.21 Concerned with my guarantors persistent threats, I retained the services of a lawyer from Daegu. In the contract I signed for his services there was a clause stating I had to refer all settlement issues to him. I had no knowledge of Korean laws, remedy and my knowledge of the Korean language was minimal.
Confident of the Ulsan Courts bias in her favour, my guarantor rejected my lawyers offer to settle the dispute. So he filed a civil lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.

2008.10.08: The Ulsan criminal prosecutors in Ok-dong began abusing their authority as criminal investigators to call two meetings which they falsely claimed were part of a criminal investigation. These meetings were attempts to expose my evidence in the civil lawsuit, force me to drop all actions and pay off my guarantor. I discussed this with my lawyer who advised me to fully cooperate with Ulsan authorities. Though he insisted all settlement talk had to go through him, he left me to face the criminal prosecutors meddling into a civil matter by myself.

2008.10.17: The first meeting in the Prosecutors Office. My guarantor, an interpreter from her husbands company and I were present.
In spite of irrefutable medical evidence and testimonies about the MPA, my guarantor maintained in English that I had nothing but a sore leg.
All wanted me to drop all actions and pay off my guarantor. I replied in English that I did not know Korean law, remedies or the Korean language and had been instructed to refer all talk about settlements to my lawyer. The Prosecutor and my guarantor became angry and refused to involve my lawyer in any way.
At the end of this meeting, the interpreter falsely assured me the statement written by the prosecutor reflected exactly what was said. I was intimidated into signing the prosecutors false statement that went to Ahils lawyer. Under those conditions at that time, I had to cooperate with the Authorities but, above my signature, I wrote, I CANNOT READ KOREAN. I hoped this would render the document inadmissible in District Court.
Through the interpreter, the prosecutor told me to write the Busan Labour Relations Commission and drop my action with them. Totally unaware of the Commissions decision, I cooperated with the prosecutors office and my lawyer, who could read Korean, never intervened.

2008.12.11 I was called to a second meeting at the Dong-Gu Police Station. This meeting was ordered by the Ulsan Prosecutor, again feigning a criminal investigation. It was, in fact, another meeting with my guarantor. Again I was questioned about the civil lawsuit I answered all questions with, I cannot comment because the matter is before the civil court. At that time, I had already testified but had not yet been cross-examined. The Prosecutor wanted to get more information from me for Ahils lawyer. The only interpreter available was the co-worker of my guarantor's husband.
Again I was asked to drop the civil lawsuit and pay off my guarantor. I replied that any talk of settlement had to go through my lawyer. My refusal to play into the prosecutors hands was reported to him. He retaliated by ordering the Police to take my fingerprints and by sending more false claims to Ahils lawyer.
I called my lawyer who insisted that in Korea, it was normal for the Police to take fingerprints of people who file civil lawsuits. I called the Korean consulate. They refused to get involved.
I reported this meddling by the Criminal Prosecutors Office into the civil lawsuit to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in Seoul. (www.e-people.go.kr. Seoul, Korea). The Anti-Corruption Commission simply sent my complaint to the Ulsan Prosecutors Office for further retaliation against me.

2008.09 to 2009.2.26 Civil Court proceedings, Ulsan District Court. My claim was about Ahils failure to follow appropriate firing procedures. It was an application to have the Court void the termination.
I warned my lawyer of the corruption in Ok-Dong. I warned him about the bias against me. I apprised him of my apprehension of bias in favour of the defendant. I instructed him to have the kidney specialist, the representative from City Hall, two foreign teachers and the family doctor testify. He failed to follow my instructions.
When I testified, the biased translation service was poor and caused a remand for cross-examination.
For cross-examination, I found an independent, highly qualified professional translator willing to interpret during the hearing. She had taken the day off work to be in Court. She was never contacted. The biased Court appointed translator came in late and sat with the defence.
When I was cross-examined, the head judge ordered me to say NOTHING other than yes or no. Everyone talked over me. No one listened to my answers. The translator failed to translate most of my testimony. The people of the Court were visibly friendly with the defence lawyer and hostile to my lawyer.
Ahils lawyer used the Prosecutors false statements to destroy my credibility. The Court disregarded my comment on the statements that I COULD NOT READ KOREAN.

I was given a copy of the Prosecutors false statements after I finished testifying. The damage was done before I could get an English interpretation and then submit corrections in Korean to Court. THE COURT ADMITTED THE FALSE STATEMENTS WHICH I COULD NOT READ, BUT IT DID NOT ADMIT MY WRITTEN AND TRANSLATED REBUTTALS OF THOSE FALSE STATEMENTS.
Though I was secretly fired while in a hospital, the defence falsely alleged that I agreed to be fired and that the Letter of Release was a termination notice. Release Letters are requested by Korean Immigration, after the foreign teacher has found another job.
The only other witness called was the head teacher. Without health care professionals and other foreign teachers to corroborate my testimony, her false written statement had already been accepted as fact by the Court. The written record of her evidence in Court is a series of yeah, yeah.

2009.03.26 The District Court released its decision. Its in Korean. I could not read it but my lawyer advised the Court had rejected my application.
A woman associated with the Court House told me the Clerk of the Court had been bribed to ensure a decision in favour of Ahil English School. I believe it because my guarantor tried, a number of times between 2007.05.17 and 2007.08.16, to buy me.
When I declared my intention to appeal the District Courts dismissal of my application, the Ulsan criminal prosecutor filed a second, retaliatory, fabricated criminal charge against me. He intended, by a criminal conviction to have me deported, thus stopping me from proceeding to the appeal which I may have won. His charge was groundless, but I knew I would never get a fair trial given the strong bias against me.

2009.03.-- According to emails from my lawyer, this second fabricated criminal charge was going through. Once the damage was done, he was offering to represent me for a fee equivalent to $5,000 and said the fine requested by the Prosecutor was $1,000.
I knew from my lawsuit that I would never get a fair trial in that country. My lawyer, knowing an appeal would bring him much more money, had let the case slide at the District Court. He had let Ahils friends in the Prosecutors office fabricate cases against me and ruin my reputation. I no longer trusted him.

2009.04. I left Korea, largely because I was fed up with the corruption, the costly but lousy medical care in Ulsan and the conviction that the Ulsan Administration had the power to incarcerate and persecute any woman over 50 living alone in Ulsan.
I dont know what happened after my departure. I asked my lawyer to send me my complete file, including all statements made. To date, he has failed to do so.

2009.10.30 I received an English interpretation of the District Courts decision of 2009.03.26.
Basically, the Court refused to give any weight to the Busan Labour Relations Commissions findings of wrongful dismissal.
It ruled that since my guarantor refused to write me a proper written termination notice stating when and why I was fired, then there was no evidence of the wrongful dismissal and therefore the Court could not accept my application to void the wrongful dismissal. So my application was dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
In the judgement the Court also acknowledged that I was pressured into dropping the case. It interpreted my attempts to involve my lawyer as a refusal to settle. The Court retaliated by rejecting my application. This retaliation for my refusal to submit to the prosecutor, drop the case and pay off my guarantor, is an irresponsible personal attack on the victim by the Court abusing it power.
It was an appealable error in Law for the District Court to rule that the release letter written by Ahil to the Immigration Department was in fact a termination notice to me. This is the most flagrant sign that whoever wrote the courts decision was biased.
THE FACT IS THAT LEGALLY, AN AFTER-THE-FACT RELEASE LETTER WRITTEN TO THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT IS NOT A TERMINATION NOTICE TO A FIRED EMPLOYEE.
The Hospital and Ahil English School are responsible for permanent damage to my kidneys, my left hand and my right foot.

The decision of the Ulsan District Court must be appealed and reversed. The misuse of the release letter by the defence and by a biased Court is a clear error in law. The fabricated criminal charge against me has to be dismissed. I have not been able to find the avenue leading to these remedies.

Ahil bought the right to:
1. deny foreign teachers prompt access to medical care for life threatening illnesses
2. dismiss foreign teachers for being in the hospital
3. dismiss foreign teachers without communication, warning or termination notice for sudden illness even when the teacher makes a complete recovery

Evidence available upon request:
1. pay statements showing me off payroll on July 12, long before the release letter of August 24
2. statement from a fellow-teacher about the secret, wrongful dismissal
3. hospital documents proving my serious, legitimate need for hospitalization on 2007.07.16
4. biopsy reports proving the defendants lied about my illness
5. letters of reference attesting to my excellent attendance, competence and ability to do the job
6. employment contracts

The above is not unique to Korea. It is a serious workplace problem resulting from the denial of workplace health and safety by unscrupulous employers.
Nevertheless, I proved that people can recover from a serious illness to become reliable and productive employees.

[Edited by Administrator (admin) Sat, 14 May 2011, 03:21 AM]