Job Discussion Forums

[JDYoung]

I'm a newbie looking for my first job.

I have a telephone interview on Monday. The school has sent me a sample contract and it looks reasonable with the exception of the following clause:

If employee resigns during the term of this agreement without the employer�s prior consent, the employee shall pay the employer three months� salary as a penalty.

I understand they need protection from people who leave mid-contract without cause but this doesn't provide for "cause" and three months salary seems excessive to me. Not that I would break a contract unless they broke it first but....

Any opinions?

Well, of course there will be opinions. I've read enough of this board to know everyone has opinions. But any useful comments?

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Good Day JDYoung:

Long time no post.

You're right; people will give you a range of opinions on this one, so let me be the brave one and go first:

When I see a clause like the one above, my first suspicion is that the school in question has had lots of runners. Otherwise, they wouldn't bother putting this kind of draconian warning in writing. And if they've had lots of runners, you'd be wise to ask yourself [and others who may have worked there] 'why?'

In general, quitting an EFL contract early usually results in one or both of the following 2 boo boos:

#1. loss of airfare reimbursement (which is normally paid at the end of your contract)

and/or

#2. forfeiture of any end-of-contract bonuses that had been promised

That's it.

The 3-month salary penalty, in my opinion, is excessive and possibly a red-flag.

Best wishes,
kEnt

[azarashi sushi]

Hi JD ...

I'm just wondering if that clause refers to "doing a runner" or does it mean that if you resign with adequate notice, the boss can still say no, in which case you would be obliged to pay the penalty?

You say you're not planning to break the contract ... BUT ...

I assume you applied for the job on the internet and have never seen the school or the city or met anyone from there ... You just never know... so don't burn your bridges! Believe it or not, employers are not always entirely upfront and honest about things.

I had a similar situation in my first job ... If anyone left before the term of the contract, they were not only required to pay a penalty but go through a whole "humiliation process" ... They were paraded in front of the parents of the children and told they were a bad foreigner blah blah blah ... The list goes on...

Of course they glossed over the part about the humiliation process in the interview but did tell me that I would have to penalty if I broke the contract. I naively believed that they had been terribly unlucky in finding good teachers ... All the teachers they had employed were really bad people ... Oh God, was I an idiot!

Of course when I arrived and started working there, I realised very quickly that there was a good reason why all of these people had broken their contracts. And of course very soon I did the same ... But being faced with a penalty and humiliation process, of course I did what everyone else did ... Run away!

It boiled down to either they screw me or I screw them ... So the choice was easy... It was sad though because the students suffered too.

Anyway, my advice is do some REALLY GOOD RESEARCH about the place and speak to as many employees as you can. If you can't speak to anyone, then I would say just keep looking. It sounds suspect.

A.S.

[johnslat]

Dear JD Yound and keNt,
The clause's being there or not may also be influenced by locality. I believe it's just about universal in the Middle East - well, if you're working for government agencies/institutions here, anyway. We have a " two-month " penalty clause in our contract. In other words, you have to give two months notice before quitting for good ( this is for " regular quitting " ) but, if you want to leave immediately, in the midst of your contract, you'd have to pay two-month's salary, buy your own air ticket back and you'd lose that year from your end-of-service bonus ( and, for all I know, you might even be " blacklisted " here for doing that ).
Regards,
John

[Glenski]

[Shonai Ben]

Lots of good advice from everyone.I would be very suspicious of this company.The fact that this is even mentioned in the contract should raise some red flags.Apparently they have had some problems before with people quitting and or running away.Actually I doubt very much if this clause is legally binding,but I am not a lawyer so I cannot say for sure but it does sound strange.
Anyway,my advice would be to just say no,I am not interested and not even bother with the interview.
There are better contracts and companies out there to work for.
Good luck.

[Roger]

If your employer is a Chinese school, then a penalty is almost automatically built in your contract. I don't blame them!
However, as an expat you are enjoying somewhat better protection than local people do! Many Chinese do not even have the nerve to ask what salary they may aspire to, instead, they wait until pay day. If the boss is happy, he pays whatever he feels is adequate. Our salary gets printed, so there is no insecurity there. We know how much we are owed. Still, some come here, then abscond because the expat thinks there are greener pastures around.
In such cases, they forfeit their airfare, and the current month's pay (unless they do a runner on the day after receiving their pay).
Apart from forfeiting your airfare, you can be made to work for a month without pay; this may be stipulated in your contract. This would be your 'penalty', although there are no known ways for the employer to enforce such a clause.
In my contract, a penalty of 10'000 has been entered; it applies to BOTH PARTIES; clearly, this is advantageous. I have been with this school for two years.
But most schools only enforce a penalty against their employees, not against themselves. Again, Chinese staffers are more vulnerable - some suffering the indignity of seeing their pay, or parts of it, docked until a sufficient level is reached for the boss to feel safe!
Make sure your schools does NOT withhold some of your pay as a security!