A, who worked as a fixed-term teacher at a middle school in the Seoul metropolitan area received a letter from the school in early December notifying her of an abrupt termination of her contract. A signed a one-year contract from March 2016 to February 2017, but was greatly surprised at the school's position to terminate the contract about three months sooner. The reason the school rushed to notify the termination of the contract was because of B, a full-time teacher who had been on parental leave. B applied to return early in time for winter vacation, when the workload was light. A had signed the contract with the school to fill B's position while B was away on parental leave. Thus when B returned to school, A had to leave. A said, "It was so sudden and I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. Other fixed-term teachers that I know are experiencing similar things as winter vacation comes around."

As some full-time teachers on leave decide to return to school early in time for winter vacation when the workload is relatively light, the fixed-term teachers who had substituted them are being kicked out of school before the termination of their contract.

On January 3, in one online community of fixed-term teachers, people posted complaints such as, "There are many cases where the full-time teachers get our salary during vacation," and "The contract term has yet to end, but the full-time teachers are trying to return early."

According to the "Guidelines for Contract Teachers at Public Schools" and the same guidelines for private schools of each city and province, when a full-time teacher returns to school early, the school can terminate the contract with a fixed-term teacher regardless of the expiration date stated in the contract. The school simply has to notify the fixed-term teacher of the termination of the contract thirty days before the full-time teacher returns.

Despite such systematic loopholes, the metropolitan and provincial offices of education do not have a remedy for the fixed-term teachers facing employment instability due to the early termination of their contracts. Thus the online community of fixed-term teachers often sees posts asking how to respond when the full-time teachers on leave return early.

An official from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said, "We advise the teachers on leave not to return during vacation. However, since we cannot hire two people for one position, if the full-time teacher returns early, the fixed-term teacher has no choice but to step down."

What's more, if the fixed-term teacher fails to fill the position for a year as in the case of A, she cannot receive severance pay. Bak Hye-seong, representative of the National Federation of Fixed-Term Teachers argued, "All systems and regulations are focused on the full-time teachers, pushing the protection of fixed-term teachers, who are irregular workers, to the back."

Schools also continue to sign the so-called "split contracts," where schools only sign contracts with fixed-term teachers for the school semester excluding summer and winter vacations. With a "split contract," the fixed-term teachers cannot receive their monthly wages during vacation and also have difficulty having this recognized as a professional experience.

According to "The Basic Education Statistics of 2016," the number of fixed-term teachers reached 46,666 nationwide, accounting for 9.5% of all teachers. Kim Seung-hyeon, a labor consultant at Siseon, a law firm of labor attorneys, said, "Fixed-term teachers can't even appeal when they receive a letter from the school notifying them of an abrupt termination of their contract, for fear they will have trouble signing contracts with other schools if unfavorable word gets out. We need to improve the system, which is clearly disadvantageous to the fixed-term teachers."