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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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 Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 2:58 am Post subject: |
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So that means the 24th, 25th, and 26th will be days off for most. Nice for the Christians with children. And nice that there is plenty of warning.
VS |
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Tazz
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 512
Location: Jakarta
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:18 am Post subject: |
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Mere crumbs for the CAS Hawthorn hires at the interior colleges.....who have been informed by their not so benevolent master that they will recieve no PAID VACATION AT ALL between semesters one and two, effectively meaning they are working in desolate locations from September til July without what I would call a 'break'.......Ministry employees are entitled to paid leave however!  |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| Tazz wrote: |
| Mere crumbs for the CAS Hawthorn hires at the interior colleges.....who have been informed by their not so benevolent master that they will recieve no PAID VACATION AT ALL between semesters one and two, effectively meaning they are working in desolate locations from September til July without what I would call a 'break'.......Ministry employees are entitled to paid leave however! |
That's the reality of working for a for-profit company. |
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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:50 am Post subject: |
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| veiledsentiments wrote: |
| So that means the 24th, 25th, and 26th will be days off for most. Nice for the Christians with children. And nice that there is plenty of warning. |
Yep  .
| Tazz wrote: |
| Mere crumbs for the CAS Hawthorn hires at the interior colleges.....who have been informed by their not so benevolent master that they will recieve no PAID VACATION AT ALL between semesters one and two, effectively meaning they are working in desolate locations from September til July without what I would call a 'break'.......Ministry employees are entitled to paid leave however! |
I hear ya. We received an e-mail, at the very beginning of the semester, from Hawthorn informing us that no leave (paid or unpaid) would be granted at all for the semester break!
| nomad soul wrote: |
That's the reality of working for a for-profit company. |
Well, it wasn't the reality last year and there never used to be any problems with getting leave from Hawthorn during the January/February semester breaks. By the way, this is the perfect time to visit countries in the Middle East and I was actually planning on taking about three weeks off and going to Egypt, Israel and Jordan, but....
Personally, I think the new policy is unreasonable and I say that as a poster who has never had a bad word to say about Hawthorn on this forum. The way I see it, we are teachers, not prison inmates, and this change is, in my view, out of order. We were not advised of the shift until after we got back to start our new contracts, the period we are talking about is during the semester breaks when things couldn't be quieter and, as Tazz mentioned, our Ministry colleagues are completely free to go as they please  .
Besides, many of us have children and/or elderly parents living far away and it's only natural and understandable if someone wants to see them more than once a year. On a personal level, one of the main reasons I got into TEFL in the first place was for the opportunity to travel and I was really looking forward to taking a few weeks off and I've been planning on doing my Middle East trip since last year  . Additionally, particularly for those who are living in isolated areas in the interior, you've also got the effects of 'cabin fever' to consider and, by the end of the year, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that, due to the policy change, there are significantly more incidences of teachers being at each others' throats. What this does to the work environment is obvious.
As discussed elsewhere before, I personally think that the semester breaks should just be 'down-time' in the first place anyway, but, at the very least, teachers should have the option of taking this time off as paid and/or unpaid leave if they wish to [and, of course, not all will wish to]. Anyway, that's just my two cents on the matter but, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah, if a teacher doesn't like it then they can leave. Just by the by, I know of many teachers who have told me that they do not intend to renew their contracts because of this and, IMHO, fair play to them.
Last edited by 1st Sgt Welsh on Thu Dec 17, 2015 10:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tazz
Joined: 26 Sep 2013
Posts: 512
Location: Jakarta
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:38 am Post subject: |
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As an agency hire at one of the MOM interior colleges I really feel for all the hawthorn guys and girls that are effectively confined to quarters from September right through til the following July....  'All' of the College staff here-both ministry and agency hire have a 9-10 day paid vacation between the semesters. What on earth is the hawthorn 'big boss' thinking in changing the policy? Oh yeah-as already stated in this thread....it's all about 'profit' and nothing to do with the welfare of his staff..... |
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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks, Tazz. I've got very little to add about Hawthorn's new policy other than what I've already said above. In fairness, I should perhaps say that some individual colleges and people in CAS leadership positions, it appears, have been more supportive than others on this issue, but, I don't really want to get into that here. My earlier post, just to clarify, was talking strictly about Hawthorn's new policy [again, I should note in fairness, with the exception of the policy change, I've always been very happy with Hawthorn] and it was not directed at the individual administrators of the various colleges, or the colleges themselves. |
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EFL Educator
Joined: 17 Jul 2013
Posts: 988
Location: Cape Town
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| Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 4:05 am Post subject: |
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Oh Man is also a holiday destination for TEFLers....enjoy the beauty of this wonderful country with seasons greetings!  |
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Sleepwalker
Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 454
Location: Reading the screen
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| Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2015 10:10 am Post subject: |
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| Has anyone contacted the MoHE? The Labour Law says that all employees should be treated equally. |
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Whatever will be
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 303
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 6:41 am Post subject: Stuck for christmas |
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Last edited by Whatever will be on Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:28 am Post subject: |
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| Sleepwalker wrote: |
| Has anyone contacted the MoHE? The Labour Law says that all employees should be treated equally. |
| Whatever will be wrote: |
MOHE argues that they can do nothing since contracts are with different bodies (agency/ ministry). Hence, different conditions/ rules apply. |
What Whatever will be said.
| Whatever will be wrote: |
| College teachers are now virtually stuck inside Oman all year except for the 4 week summer break. |
Hawthorn teachers actually get 60 calendar days' holiday a year. Hawthorn's change in policy in regards to leave during the January/February semester breaks is apparently due to something that happened in Nizwa or Ibri (I can't remember which one). It appears that some teachers took some paid leave during January, which meant they were required to stay longer in July to make up for the lost hours that they hadn't been desk warming earlier in the year. Anyway, to make a long story short, the upshot was that Hawthorn got hit for extra accommodation costs because they had to rent out some apartments for July to house the relevant teachers.
Instead of just informing their staff that if a teacher chose to take paid leave during the January/February break, that they would be responsible for arranging and paying for their own accommodation in July, or just to deduct any additional housing costs from salaries, Hawthorn decided it was only sensible to issue a blanket 'leave ban' for all teachers in all CAS colleges in Oman. I guess the first two options were too logical . By the way, the Hawthorn teachers in Salalah arrange their own accommodation for the entire year anyway, so what happened in the interior has absolutely no relevance to us . Besides, if you know this is going to be your last year with the company anyway, then it doesn't matter and Hawthorn can just adjust your final pay out accordingly.
I guess offering unpaid leave in January and February would be another option, but, if a teacher doesn't turn up, and is not getting paid, then I'm not sure if the agency is still getting their slice of the action. If not, then that would explain why Hawthorn isn't keen on offering unpaid leave during this period either  .
Last edited by 1st Sgt Welsh on Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Whatever will be
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 303
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by Whatever will be on Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:38 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:39 am Post subject: |
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| Whatever will be wrote: |
| Just curious: does Hawthorn count Fridays and Saturdays in their 60 calendar days? |
Yep. You basically get two months off.
| Whatever will be wrote: |
If you tell me know that class sizes are below 38 students, I will get seriously jealous. |
I was only teaching one class this semester and I had eight students .
Look, all in all, Hawthorn is not a bad company and, as I mentioned earlier, with the exception of the leave ban, I've been very happy with them. Furthermore, I should note that most of the Hawthorn teachers I work with couldn't care less about the leave issue as they were planning on staying for the duration anyway. Not all, but most. I just happen not to be one of them and, as stated, I was really looking forward to getting away for a few weeks.
What does get up my snout, however, is that we were not advised of the changes until we had already committed to being back in Oman. If I had agreed to the new policy [even if it was within the context of a 'take it or leave it' situation] during the renewal phase then that would have been a different matter. Maybe I would have renewed, maybe I wouldn't have, but, that was pertinent information I should have been advised of before making the decision. Like I said, it's not an important issue for everyone, but it is/was to me. Besides, as mentioned in my earlier post, there are far less severe, common sense solutions to the issue that could have accommodated everybody. Anyway, that's just how I see it.
Last edited by 1st Sgt Welsh on Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Whatever will be
Joined: 05 Feb 2014
Posts: 303
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:51 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by Whatever will be on Sun Dec 20, 2015 3:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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1st Sgt Welsh
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
Posts: 946
Location: Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
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| Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Whatever will be wrote: |
OMG! 2 months off!
So, you're complaining about what exactly? |
Trust me, you are the last person on this forum who should be criticizing and rolling your eyes at another poster for "complaining" . Besides, I am not talking about the amount of paid leave, I am talking about the change in policy as to when it can be taken. Just by the by, 60 days leave is not uncommon here, or at least it doesn't seem that way to me. Just by way of example, the teachers in Salalah's two other colleges are actually getting more leave than me. Anyway, I'm living in the Gulf, and if I couldn't get a job in the GCC which offered decent holidays and the opportunity to save, then, quite simply, I wouldn't be here. If you were offered a contract in which the holidays clearly stipulated weren't all that and you agreed to it and signed it anyway, well, ....
Anyway, we seem to be 'editing' over each other . I answered your first post about the number of days leave, then you added other comments to your post, so I edited my earlier post to respond, now I've only just seen your new post..... However, as luck would have it, I think I've answered the above question with my last edited post, but, if you don't think so then feel free to let me know. |
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