Job Discussion Forums

[Denim-Maniac]

[just another laowai]

China Foreign Teachers Union and all associated sites are part of a fraud/extortion ring being run by Bruce Gorcyca aka Anthony DiMarco. A convicted felon and current fugitive on the run from the US.

More information about who this is is available here:
www.419advancefeefraud.blogspot.com/2011/09/anthony-dimarco-and-china-trade.html

His (numerous) accounts have already been banned at most expat forums.

[B4UGO]

There are probably just as many bad teachers as there are bad schools, and I always consider the sources. In many blacklists floating around out there they are full of 3rd party BS like "I had a friend who..." That crap is meaningless to me. At least the CFTU site puts the sources and the links so people can judge for themselves.

I wonder how many blacklists of teachers are out there passed around to the Principals and Headmasters? I found this at China Daily in the archives and it proves that as far back as 2007, the schools were keeping tabs on the teachers;

Teacher blacklist arouses concern
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-03 14:56

"Some universities in Shanghai have expressed concern about a teachers' blacklist on the Internet and said they will consider canceling the courses of these teachers next semester, if an investigation warrants it.

Recently, on some campus BBS, university students have posted comments on some teachers and suggested that fellow students not choose courses run by these teachers. Some students said they would login to the BBS first before deciding which course to take for the next semester. Some universities said they would consider the student comments and set up procedures to examine teachers' work."

(Xinwen Morning Post)

[Lancy Bloom]

I worked at many of these schools on the blacklist. There is no way this organization will survive long. No unions in China are allowed.
Now what is needed is a way to screen recruiters. I see them as all being conected and buying and selling pieces of everyone, The large agencies are also connected.
I was so nice twenty years ago when yuo dealt directly with schools. People gave face to face interviews. They paid your way to the job.
Hope they don't step on the wrong toes.

[B4UGO]

One of my best friends here in China is engaged to marry a vice-principal of a Chinese-owned English school and she admitted to my friend that all the principals cozy up to the agents and recruiters - whether they are licensed or not.

She said that an average salary allocation for an expat foreign teacher is between 15,000-18,000 rmb per month. The principals will deliberately not hire directly because when they use an agent they get a 3,000 rmb kick-back from the agent who will also pocket an average of 3,000 rmb per month.

So on average, foreign teachers who use agents/recruiters in China are giving up a third or more of their real salaries to the agents and the principals! But it gets worse...

The principals will hire these foreign teachers on "90 day probationary periods" at reduced pay (maybe 50%-60% of full salary) and then at the very last week of that period tell the teacher a new budget amendment requires a "cutback" and the newest teachers must go!

Then they start the recruitment cycle all over again and both the agent and principal makes another round of quick profits. It's an evil but profitable game they play.

But the very worst part still, is that these same agents and principals run paid ads on many expat forums like EChinacities, Beijinger, etc. and when expats start to bitch about these schemes on forums, their posts get deleted and ignorance prevails.

I agree with you completely, the scam recruiters and agents are the main problem and I am glad the CFTU has been publishing their photos and many names on their website. BTW... all that I heard from my friend who has been dating the vice-principal for three years, is also mentioned in greater detail at www.chinascambusters.com

[Lancy Bloom]

This is a troller site for recruiters. Recruiters trolling recruiters. All the good teachers have left long ago. Anyone who tells people that the English teaching business is legit in China is lieing. Why do the leaders of the country all send their children abroad to studY? I have yet in over ten years teaching in Asia met a teacher who was never ripped off.
I meet people who say eveything is good at these nefarious places on the list they presented. They were drunk and waiving bottles in public. Sure they are happy untill they have to get deported back home on their 12 month of their contract. Personna non grata. I have yet to meet someone in China comming from a top university in the rest of the world.

[vikeologist]

Just another laowai - how exactly is the extortion racket working?

Presumably they plan to extort money from schools and agents? I think if that's what they're trying to do it's a bit of a longshot.

But let's be honest here. B4UGO, No Longer Amused and any other disciples here are probably the same person and the same IP address. Can anyone who has a history of posting on this site verify their physical existence? How come they advertise on this site, but not on sites, such as raoul's, that block multiple pseudonyms?

Mind you, that blacklist is at least vaguely valuable. (A bit like the worst recruiter in China having the most valuable site for finding jobs). No doubt there are schools on it that aren't that bad, but there are some schools and recruiters in China that one shouldn't have any dealings with, and they are on that blacklist.

If it is DiMarco, then maybe it takes a scammer to catch a scammer.

People should research schools and take what they find out into account, but still think for themselves. There are teachers who are going to have a bad experience in almost any school, but clearly there are bad ones out there.

I completely understand why the propsect of earning 250Y an hour would be attractive to some of us. In Beijing or Shanghai it probably is possible to earn that much an hour taching privates, though 200 may still be a more common upper limit.

I don't think teachers joining will be blacklisted, although its possible that at some point they plan to become a branch of SAEFA and offer to take you off the SAEFA blacklist that you unfortunately found your way on to because of your membership of CFTU. (Damn you SAEFA with an unfamiliar email address. How did you find out?)

Helpful as a Teachers Union or centralised information about schools and recruiters would be, it can't be sustained without the involvement, consent and control of the Communist Party, and I dare say the party deems these functions to already be in existence via SAEFA.

Unless someone 'real' wants to promote CFTU, I'd treat this with a lot of skepticism.