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Avoid KSU recruiters ICEAT, EdEx!
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Grendal



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 861
Location: Lurking in the depths of the Faisaliah Tower underground parking.

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 9:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

update.

ICEAT is having a general staff meeting after the non-negotiable contracts were refused its complementary signatures by teachers here. Does this mean that the recruiting manager in charge of adjusting salaries is going to have to give in and offer raises? Pleasing the CEO with savings on contracts is the suspicion here. But at the cost of having a revolt and possibly loosing her own job? No teachers returning means the end of ICEAT here at KSU. This is their one and only major university contract.

Grendal
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EnglishDoYouSpeakIt



Joined: 19 May 2009
Posts: 151
Location: Saudi Arabia

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 4:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think these companies can readily handle a mass exodus. They are always bringing in new teachers to replace lost ones. They can easily find replacements. We are hammers. Once we break there is a hardware store close by, fully stocked.
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fledex



Joined: 05 Jun 2011
Posts: 342

PostPosted: Wed May 15, 2013 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EnglishDoYouSpeakIt wrote:
I think these companies can readily handle a mass exodus. They are always bringing in new teachers to replace lost ones. They can easily find replacements. We are hammers. Once we break there is a hardware store close by, fully stocked.


Yup, and I remember Edex even brought in a British taxi driver once. No degree or certificate necessary, just keep 'em hidden in September and replace 'em in December. Bring in the numbers.
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Gerund



Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Amerika

PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's something really suspicious about EdEx. Out of the blue, I received a request for my resume, passport and degrees "before we can begin the assessment process".

I had no memory of applying to Education Experts Company, but I assumed from the line "before we can begin the assessment process" that I must have and that it was therefore a job I would be interested in.

I sent the requested documents, and only one day later I was offered a job and sent a contract to sign and return. An instantaneous job offer is always suspicious, and even stranger is that on my resume it is quite clear that I am already working in KSA. How could I possibly sign a new contract while under contract to another company? Surely EdEx knows that it would be impossible even if I wanted their low-paying position, which I don't.
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Middle East Beast



Joined: 05 Mar 2008
Posts: 836
Location: Up a tree

PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 7:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does the contract have the same insane stipulations?

--the first party reserves the right to make "appropriate deductions" if you resign or are terminated

--30 days of vacation at the end of the contract

--30 contact hours

--during the probation period they can terminate without notice and without compensation

--during the probation period if you're terminated or resign you will be charged any fines or levies imposed by the relative authorities.

In all my years in KSA I have never seen such provisions in a contract there...and the other Saudi contract I was offered was worse.

MEB Cool
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EYEBALL



Joined: 17 Apr 2013
Posts: 34

PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 10:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

EdEx has no intention of honoring the end of contract bonus if you are not on an iqama. By law, it only applies if you have an iqama--so they plan to cheat everyone who is working on the 90 visa out of it. They are also experiencing trouble getting the visas extended to August. If you are EdEx and on the 90 day visa, you may be leaving much earlier than they led you to believe!
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Gerund



Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 80
Location: Amerika

PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2013 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Middle East Beast wrote:
Does the contract have the same insane stipulations?

--the first party reserves the right to make "appropriate deductions" if you resign or are terminated

--30 days of vacation at the end of the contract

--30 contact hours

--during the probation period they can terminate without notice and without compensation

--during the probation period if you're terminated or resign you will be charged any fines or levies imposed by the relative authorities.

In all my years in KSA I have never seen such provisions in a contract there...and the other Saudi contract I was offered was worse.

MEB Cool


I can't answer your questions. Given the absurdity of asking a person currently working in KSA to sign a new contract without the minor formalities of resigning his current position, getting an exit only visa and a letter of no objection, I didn't give the contract any more than a glance.
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Grendal



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 861
Location: Lurking in the depths of the Faisaliah Tower underground parking.

PostPosted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Business visas are getting harder to renew. A 90 day business visit visa is now being renewed for one week only then a final exit is required. No more perpetual renewal. Gone are the days of shady business by dodgy outfits.

Grendal
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fledex



Joined: 05 Jun 2011
Posts: 342

PostPosted: Fri May 24, 2013 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't count on it Grendal. Edex will be bringing 'em in on visit visas. How else can they get the numbers they need during September? If the teachers need legitimate qualifications, and have to pass criminal background and medical checks, it would severely limit the number of replacement hammers they can buy. Maybe they'll just get them in for 90 days and then replace them.
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Grendal



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 861
Location: Lurking in the depths of the Faisaliah Tower underground parking.

PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

fledex wrote:
Don't count on it Grendal. Edex will be bringing 'em in on visit visas. How else can they get the numbers they need during September? If the teachers need legitimate qualifications, and have to pass criminal background and medical checks, it would severely limit the number of replacement hammers they can buy. Maybe they'll just get them in for 90 days and then replace them.


Yes. Taxi dwivews, Washwoom attendants, Tea boys, bewgew fwippews, can all get jobs with edex to teach engwish. Then they wepwace them with anothew taxi dwivew aftew 90 days.

Grendal
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Mysterious



Joined: 24 Sep 2011
Posts: 170

PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2013 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Grendal, are you guys happy with the ICEAT contracts now?

Hubby is happy with his. It's definitely what he deserves. And he spoke to many other men and they all seem to have got pay rises, so I'm assuming possibly everyone has got a pay rise? Everyone that he's spoken to so far are content with what they've got.

About time they sorted it out properly!

ANd I hear some ICEAT staff were sacked.. but now there are rumours to try and keep them in?

And that EdEx will be sacking some staff, too. Apparently it's all come from the university itself, and not ICEAT or EDEX.. so hopefully this will put an end to the taxi driver type teachers? 'cause they're sacking people based on lack of qualifications, too.
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fledex



Joined: 05 Jun 2011
Posts: 342

PostPosted: Wed May 29, 2013 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mysterious wrote:

And that EdEx will be sacking some staff, too. Apparently it's all come from the university itself, and not ICEAT or EDEX.. so hopefully this will put an end to the taxi driver type teachers? 'cause they're sacking people based on lack of qualifications, too.


Nope, they do that every year. Edex replaces the sacked teachers and the non-returning teachers with taxi drivers, guys on parole, etc. for enough time to make head count. If their lack of qualifications aren't discovered by the uni, they will stay on. If they are discovered, they can be replaced later. There is no logic to who Edex sacks. Edex never had a legitimate way to monitor teachers' results or performance. They determine performance based on hearsay, rumors, and compromised sources and surveys. I witnessed the clowns putting the surveys and results together the first year. The teachers being sacked may be the best teachers they have. Qualified teachers won't go to Edex; and if they do out of desperation, they'll move on as soon as they can.
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Grendal



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 861
Location: Lurking in the depths of the Faisaliah Tower underground parking.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mysterious wrote:
Grendal, are you guys happy with the ICEAT contracts now?


Well yes I am happy with it but it doesn't mean I'm going to sign it. My first year in Saudi Arabia (2008/2009) with Shabaka and King Faisal University paid me 13,300 SAR base salary with furnished apartment for family, medical, and transportation covered by them. My new contract is not even close to my first earnings. Base salary that is. And that is with the generous raise that they've put in. My point is that with the cost of living and inflation I have been making less each subsequent year after 2009. Saudi labour law has inflation adjustments that are due to employees from their employers in a form of annual increases as a percentage rate according to inflation. It was 10% increase last year and this year it is only 5%.

I'll be joining the Turkish board because I had a better time teaching in Turkey and my last employer there still needs me back to work ASAP. After 4 years AWOL.

Grendal
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fledex



Joined: 05 Jun 2011
Posts: 342

PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 3:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Going where the excitement is Grendal? The media is starting to call Istanbul the "summer of our discontent." For me, Qassim was the winter of discontent.
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Grendal



Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Posts: 861
Location: Lurking in the depths of the Faisaliah Tower underground parking.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Istanbul! Such a stereotypical assumption of a place where travelers go when they visit Turkey. No I will be going to central Anatolia. Most likely Ankara. If not there is Eskisehir and Izmir too.

Istanbul is too over rated and expensive. Lots of scammers and thieves there too. You might get out with just a loss of $1000 US if you go drinking in some shady areas of Taksim. I was escourted to an ATM by two bouncers to pay for a bar tab that looked like I had bought the whole bars' contents. They seemed to have settled for my daily withdrawal limit and kicked me out as soon as the ATM coughed up the money. I was inebriated but not that much that I bought the whole bar. They contested that I was buying drinks for the Russian dancers that had swarmed my table.

Don't go drinking alone in Istanbul. You will get robbed if you're lucky and worse if you're not.

Grendal
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