By Park si-soo



A court has recognized foreign tutors at a private language institute as "employees" entitled to severance pay, rejecting the institute's claim that they were self-employed.

Judge Oh Sang-yong of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of five native English teachers at an unidentified private language institute in Seoul, Monday.

He ordered the institute to offer them 180 million won in severance pay and other unpaid allowances.

The institute had claimed the tutors were"self-employed" teachers paid by the hour so they were not entitled to severance pay. But the court ruled that the five were "employees" who had to act upon their contracts regulating their working hours, curriculum and other details.

"Their working contracts stipulated all things about their employment and working conditions, with which their relationship could be seen as an employer-employee," the judge wrote in the ruling statement. "The stipulated terms were decided by the institute, which meant the teachers were fully under its control."

According to the court, the tutors worked at the institute for 17 months-eight years and three months, three to six hours a day, and four to five days a week.

They sued the institute in September 2015 after it refused to pay severance pay and other entitlements.