Job Discussion Forums

DenUk · Joined: 08 Aug 2009 Posts: 60 Location: Ask me..

Dear Fellow ESL Teachers,

The end of the academic year is fast approaching here at KSU and what a relief it will be for ICEAT.

For those considering coming with ICEAT to KSU for the next academic year or have been given employment offers by them, think twice. ICEAT isn't the company it use to be. Their reputation has been tarnished and here are some of the things they have done:

1) False promises of Iqamas (teachers waited for 9 months! to get their Iqamas. Most gave up and kept their Work Visit Visas)

2) No flight reimbursements (those teachers who were told to leave the night before their visa was due to expire!)

3) Visa and Iqama fees paid by the TEACHERS and not the company

4) Promises broken by the former Project Manager ( who is now the Recruitment Manager and whose name begins with an "A" and is synonymous with cheating and lying)

5) Paid-holiday authorized and given by KSU to companies, yet some ICEAT teachers weren't even paid at all!

6) Family Housing allowances only given if your spouse is with you in Saudi Arabia, otherwise you get single status allowance.

7) A poor and incompetent team working at their office, any process takes weeks to complete.

8. An increasing array of complaints this year from teachers given to KSU's HR Team regarding their pay being docked, ill-treatment by the company, no proper channel of communication etc.

9) Salaries being docked by the MINUTE if teachers are late signing-in and in some cases, whole days being deducted.

I felt it fair and just to given a holistic view of what has been happening this year for those teachers who are considering coming here for the new academic year.

Peace out!

Bill Frawley · Joined: 07 Mar 2012 Posts: 6 Location: Riyadh

Xxxxxxx

Kornan DeKobb · Joined: 24 Jan 2010 Posts: 242

milliman · Joined: 12 Feb 2011 Posts: 23

first all no company will ever be perfect that is a fact no matter how much you wish them to be good your never going to find teachers that are ever satisfied with what they have.

yes the company lied and have made huge mistakes and i don't condone it but couple questions has to be asked.
1 do they pay you on time?
2 if you are not happy why are you still there?

what annoys me is people who go there and then find it hard to be there and then complain. if you are not happy with the situation leave why stay there and come on here.

i am not speaking on behalf of the company but i am speaking about the stupid choices people make. if you find the company you have signed for is not what it seemed to be before you signed with them. why didn't you do research on them? again why are you still around working for the company.

stop coming on here either do something about it or leave. ESL cafe is not what it used to be

Milli

johnslat · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 12:34 pm Post subject:

Dear milliman,

" . . . why didn't you do research on them?"

Agree - everyone should try to research potential employers.

" . . . stop coming on here . . ."

Disagree - that's HOW potential employees can do that research.

You seem to be giving conflicting advice here.

"ESL cafe is not what it used to be"

Ah, but what (or who) is Very Happy

? Lord knows I'm not, and Saudi certainly seems to have gone downhill since the addition of so many "recruiters/contractors." Which is exactly why people posting about them is needed.

Regards,
John

fledex · Joined: 05 Jun 2011 Posts: 342

People have been warned about KSU and their recruiters (ICEAT, EDEX, and BELL before them). It helps to have new information, though, to know that the recruiters and university haven't changed. By the way, why would KSU's failure to pay have any effect on the teachers? Aren't teachers who are recruited by these agencies working and contracted with these agencies? When I was with EDEX, I was on a fixed salary from them. If whatever university we worked for didn't pay them, that would have been EDEX's problem, not our problem. Maybe teachers should be checking in with the labor dept. in Riyadh to find out more.

cmp45 · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 1475 Location: KSA

fledex · Joined: 05 Jun 2011 Posts: 342

One year in Najran, when Edex was cheating teachers out of part of their salary, a teacher went to the labor department and started complaining. A call from the department, and (I think) a prince getting involved, moved Edex to pay him and the other teachers all that was owed. He was on a visit visa, working illegally. That he was working illegally in itself was enough to get Edex moving. At KSU there are students from enough influential families that could start things rolling if a teacher has a good rapport with them.

johnslat · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 4:42 pm Post subject:

Dear fledex,

While it's true that wasta rules, not too many teachers, especially new ones, have much, if any, of it.

And if a teacher has "good rapport" with a student that has wasta, the teacher had better remember that wasta never comes "free."

Regards,
John

Linguist · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 202

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Remember two golden rules that I learned from Damon Runyon

1. There are no free lunches.

2. You can't fight City Hall

Both are valid in KSA

Grendal · Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:14 am Post subject:

teacup05 · Joined: 14 Aug 2011 Posts: 15 Location: International

Hello Grendel,
over here at the women's campus, teachers are not complaining about 1 lousy riyal missing from their pay. They are complaining about getting stuck in Bahrain for a couple weeks because of ICEAT mishandling their visas and then not getting paid for the work they missed, even when it's not their fault. They are complaining about being abandoned after getting mugged while in a different city and their passport stolen, meaning they can't get back to Riyadh. They are complaining about having to hand in their passports to get a visa extension, though they were promised iqamas, and then not getting their passports for 5 months or more. We are still being promised iqamas -- but all the iqamas have been assigned to men only. We are complaining about how, because we don't have iqamas, we can't have bank accounts. After about 4 months ICEAT finally figured our how to help us transfer money so we could pay our overseas bills -- before that we had to rely on colleagues and taxi drivers who used their iqamas to transfer our money for us. We are complaining about how, if the bus doesn't show up, it's somehow our fault and we get yelled at for it. We're complaining about having been recruited with the promise we'd have a choice of accommodation, then being housed an hour from campus in a new city block with no stores on our side of a very busy and dangerous street, no restaurants where we can eat, and no place to walk. We're complaining about the ridiculous expectation that if we have flu, we still have to show up to work. Apparently it should be no problem if someone vomits on the bus.
Last (for now) and not least, but very problematic, is the dismissive attitude that ICEAT men take towards the teachers. Problem solving does not come out of disregard, but from respecting each other's perspective and seriously looking for positive alternatives.

Grendal · Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 3:57 pm Post subject:

Dear Teacup,

Holy cow!
...................

OK. I have to admit that my better half who works at PNU says the same thing about women's issues, and some of what you mentioned are about the same. Exept that Edex employees have a better deal it seems than the SBC ones. I believe they (Edex) have better holiday packages and salary adjustment/increments on contracts.

Other than this bit of bland information I have not too much else to say about your previously entered post than I am sorry to hear about the unfortunate series of events you've chronicled.

Regards.

Grendal

fledex · Joined: 05 Jun 2011 Posts: 342