A Seoul court said Monday that a group of foreign teachers employed by a private language institute here were entitled to receive severance benefits that their employer refused to pay because it considered them to be independent contract workers.

The Seoul Central District Court partially ruled in favor of five English teachers who filed a suit in September 2015 against their former employer, a private language education chain in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province which refused to acknowledge them as regular employees and offer severance pay. The group is made up of three US citizens, one South Korean and one Canadian.

The verdict ordered the institute to give the plaintiffs a total of 187 million won ($167,000) in severance pay, along with compensation for unused annual leave and vacation.

In court, the institute’s attorneys argued the teachers were hired under “service contracts for instructors,” which provide wages at an hourly rate and consider them privately contracted workers. The contracts did not stipulate basic or fixed pay and a guaranteed registration of social insurance programs, nor require them to pay earned income tax. The team also insisted benefits like pensions were already included in the wage package.

But the court dismissed such claims, stating that the terms of the contracts represented an “archetypal” employer-employee relationship.

“The contract terms on codes of conduct regarding termination of contract, probation, and workplace punctuality policies represent the nature of direct employment,” the verdict reads. “Thus the contract should be viewed as an official labor contract.”

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)