Job Discussion Forums

[rick_martin_78]

I am at the end of my contract (along with some other teachers at TALENTY ENGLISH SCHOOL, DaLian), and in order to be reimbursed for our airfare, the school says that they require:

A) an invoice from a travel agency, or
B) the ticket itself.

This is somewhat problematic for many teachers, who:

A) did not have the foresight to ask for an invoice
B) are using these tickets to fly, and thus (surprise surprise) must take the tickets with them when they go.

What exactly is proper policy in such a matter as this. Many of my friends have said that if the school does not accept a photocopy, it's bullshit and they just don't want to pay you in the first place. I suspect the latter is true... Am I right?

Rick Martin
TALENTY SCHOOL (Gai Lun), Dalian

p.s. Our school has arranged a foreign affairs meeting for monday morning, where I expect they will tell our teachers to contact there next of kin and arrange for the mailing of invoices. If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd be ever so thankful...

[Roger]

It used to be practice for them to pay you a lump sum of 5000 RMB, in some schools even more than that, irrespective of your exact airfare!
In recent years, I have heard a number of times that they wanted to see proof of you having bought a ticket. The first time I heard this I was surprised, but there seems to be a tendency that may have been sanctioned from above.

Anyway, can you refer to your contract? Does it say they will reimburse you the exact airfare? That would be surprising as someone flying in from Los Angeles probably pays a lot more than the 5000 RMB they offer.

The fact that they ask for proof so belatedly points to a new rule being enacted now. Perhaps the rule has come into force over the last six months.
I would try to get hold of proof, but I also think that no matter whether you have proof of actually having bought a ticket or not, they owe you a certain amount anyway, if only because it has been standard tradition since the early 1980's!
Perhaps you can try to get a kind of "departure bonus" from them in lieu of this airfare? If the vibes between the expats and the school are reasonable, they would find this a convincing method of satisfying both sides!

[rick_martin_78]

I doubt there's a new rule, and if there is I doubt my boss knows it. He seems to be unaware of most rules, old or new...

There seems to be a slight difference in the way things are run here in Dalian, and in the main location in Shenyang.

I have often asked them to call Shenyang on certain issues, in order to ask exactly what the policy is. They usually say "There is no need to involve Shenyang."

There are many other apartment issues, salary issues, etc...

Recently, one new teacher had to pay a huge 2000rmb deposit, while the other teachers pay no deposit at all. One of our teachers just broke his contract a months ago, and flew out of the country, so I expect this is the schools way of taking out an insurance policy...

I'm just getting angry cause these people can't do their job properly.

Can't or won't, I'm not sure.
Again, I suspect the latter...

Thanks
R

[yaco]

At my school in Jiangsu Province , they verbally request the price of the airfares. Of course being a novice to this game and being a westerner , I asked them if they required a copy of my airline tickets ?

The FAO said ' Oh, we have never considered requesting foreign teachers for their airline tickets'.

Anyway, I hope to make some extra money on the tickets because the printed price on the ticket is more than the actual price paid.

Let you know the result in July.

[MyTurnNow]

I don't know all your particulars but I get a really baaaaaad feeling from the things you have written. Not accepting a photocopy seems awfully fishy...
Concur on the policy thing. I've been in school management for most of the last 16 months and I've never heard of this. It seems unlikely that a uniform documentation standard would be imposed for something like air travel...especially retroactively on people already here. It's not as if the government foots the bill for your air ticket. I think this is weasel behavior on the individual school level, not policy on the national or provincial or city level.

Time to clean the guns!

MT