Job Discussion Forums

[svaldezi]

Job offer in Beijing. Hello my name is Steven. Any one hear of New Life ESL? Their suppose to be only American group in China helping hire teachers? They have a 5 star rating on Facebook if that means anything? Any ways here is the contract. I'm going with paid accommodation and BTW this is a paid internship position. Any thoughts?
Party B:
Email:
Age and Nationality:__________________________________
I. Party A’s Obligations
1. Party A will provide employment for Party B in China. The base salary is
6000 RMB/month, along with free, well furnished accommodation, shared, but Party B will have his or her own room. If Party B doesn’t need free accommodation, the salary will be 8000 Yuan/month.
The accommodation will be equipped with a bed, closet, western toilet, TV, air-condition, washing machine, shower, internet etc. Upon successful completion of a 12-month contract, party A shall pay party B a bonus of 6,000RMB in lieu of airfare. Failure to complete the full contracted period would lead to the non-payment of the bonus. For the first three months Party A will deduct 2000 RMB each month from Party B’s salary and keep it as deposit. Failure to complete the full contracted period the deposit will not be given back.
The contract is from to . (The date will be filled in when Party B arrives).
2. Party A will pay the monthly salary on the 25th of every next month. For example, Jan 1st to Jan 31st will be paid on Feb 25th. The salary will be calculated from the day Party B starts to work. If it is not a full month the salary will be prorated, the amount will be 6000/22*the days Party B works in that month.
If Party B asks for more than one day leave before the pay day, the pay day will be delayed the same amount of days as the days Party B asks for leave. Party B cannot get the salary earlier than the actual payday. If Party B wants to get salary or a part of the salary before the actual payday, or Party B wants to borrow money from Party A, Party B shall deposit the passport with Party A. Party A shall only give the passport back to Party B after Party B pays back all the money he or she borrowed.
Party A will make all necessary visa arrangements in mainland China.
3. Working hours will not more than 40 hours/week, including teaching hours and office hours. Teaching hours will not exceed 25 hours per 5-day-week, and up to 15 additional hours per week may be allocated towards administrative tasks and lesson preparation, watching the kids etc.
4. Party A may introduce party B to the following educational institutions.
a) Kindergartens. b) Language training centers.
4.1 Working hours:
a) Kindergarten. Monday to Friday 8am – 5pm.
b) Language training centers. 3 week days- afternoons and evenings, Saturday and Sunday - full day.
For the kindergarten positions beside teaching Party B has to babysit the kids.
5. When Party B arrives, Party A will arrange Party B to the school to do demo class and arrange Party B a new apartment nearby the school. The new apartment will be shared with Chinese people.
6. Upon arrival at Beijing airport, Party A will pick up Party B at the airport if Party B arrives Beijing during Sunday to Thursday 9am to 5pm. If Party B arrives Beijing out of these time, Party B shall take a taxi from the airport to the address as below.
Room 102, Gate 1, No. 7 Building, ShuangHuiYuan, ShuangQiaoNan, JingTongKuaiSu, ChaoYang district, Beijing
朝阳区京通快速双桥南 100 米路西红色小区双惠小区 7 号楼 1 单元 102 房间 Party A will provide Party B a temporary apartment at no cost. The temporary apartment is well furnished with all necessities.
7. After Party B moves to the long term apartment, Party B shall buy the beddings himself/herself and pay for the internet, water, electricity, gas himself/herself. Party B shall pay for the taxi fee for moving to the long term apartment.
Should party B decline the position upon arrival in Beijing or prior to the commencement of said position, Party B will be liable to pay Party A 3000 RMB for the visa invitation letter and 100 RMB/day as boarding in the temporary apartment Party A provides.
V. Party B’s Obligations
1. Party B will create lesson plans, observe the school’s working system and regulations concerning administration of foreign teachers and shall accept the school’s direction, supervision and evaluation in regard to his/her work.
2. If Party B has to ask for sick leave during work time, he/she shall tell Party A and the director at the school at least one day before; the salary will be deducted from Party B’s monthly salary. If Party B doesn’t tell Party A one day before, Party A will deduct 500 Yuan each day from Party B’s monthly salary besides the leave deduction. 3. If Party B has to ask for personal leave during work time, he/she shall tell Party A and the director at the school at least four days beforehand and the salary will be deducted from Party B’s monthly salary.
4. Should Party B wish to cancel the contract, Party B shall tell the local school or Party A at least three months. Party B shall work until the last working day as agreed. If Party A has not arranged Party B long term visa, then there will be no penalty, if Party A already arranged Party B the long term visa Party B shall pay for the rest time of the visa fee. Should Party B cancel the contract without sufficient notice to the local school or Party A, Party B shall incur a 1000USD breach of contract penalty, along with the long term visa expense.
Party A Party B Date: Date:[/code]

[The Voice Of Reason]

6k / 8k for 40hrs p/w farmed out to kindies n mills around the big choke. I certainly wouldn't bother with that at all! At twice that pay it'd still be underpaid compared to legit gigs. I would be stunned if they can legally hire foreigners (Z visa & work permit).

Edit : just read the bit about they will keep 2k per month of your peanut allowance for the first 3 months! FFS! Bin that trash!

[fat_chris]

[Bud Powell]

Circular File

Personal leave

If Party B doesn’t tell Party A one day before, Party A will deduct 500 Yuan each day from Party B’s monthly salary besides the leave deduction.

Sucks mightily

Cancellation of contract

If Party A has not arranged Party B long term visa, then there will be no penalty, if Party A already arranged Party B the long term visa Party B shall pay for the rest time of the visa fee.

Sounds like the school intends to bring the teacher in on a tourist visa. RUN!

Should Party B cancel the contract without sufficient notice to the local school or Party A, Party B shall incur a 1000USD breach of contract penalty, along with the long term visa expense.


Sounds like the employee will be issued a Z visa after he's been at the school awhile. RUN!

[direshark]

I had considered them in my search. I was wondering what that "internship" was on their company page. So far that I can tell I suspect it's just a means of avoiding Chinese legal obligations (by calling it an internship) and getting you over to China on incredibly unsavory terms.
No wonder I couldn't find any further information on what the actual internship was. None of this looks like a good deal.

I know that group does generic recruiter employment matchmaking with various schools and NOT via that internship thing, but after looking at this, I'm not sure how much I'd trust their other contract offers to be solid deals.

Do some more job searching and you'll soon be overwhelmed by better offers. (Granted, if you don't have a degree (which maybe is why you're considering an internship deal?), wisdom around here says you might be setting yourself up to be exploited by these kinds of gigs.)

[svaldezi]

Ya I got a degree, but I'm feeling a but nervous now to...they want me to go their with a f visa then change it. The more reading I do the more it feels fishy. What do you think guys?

[direshark]

[doogsville]

[svaldezi]

[Toast]

I usually don't look at these full-length contract threads when people post them up here, because they are generally too time consuming and dull, but I couldn't stop reading this one. It seemed like every clause had a fairly significant sized red flag - one of the worst I've ever seen.

Between the crap pay, the woeful airfare reimbursement, the mandatory deductions as security deposit, the salary being paid on the 25th (!!) of the *next* month, the requirement to leave your passport with the administration if you take a pay advance (the 6,000rmb security deposit wasn't already enough?), 40 hours work per week whereby you are farmed out to other workplaces *and* required to babysit during the non-teaching times, the shared apartment (with Chinese people) and being required to give at least one day's notice if you intend to take a sick day - this contract could just about be an article from the Chinese ESL's The Onion.

Don't be fooled by fancy words like "internship". In the Asian English teaching world frequently such pompous terms are used to attract Peace Corps type wannabes who come over thinking they're doing something all noble and altruistic, and will get something noteworthy to put on a resume when they return to the "real world" a year later only to find out they are working like a dog for pennies for a millionaire with 8 houses, 6 girlfriends and a Ferrari who is farming them out to his millionaire mates. I'm happy to teach for free / cheap for people who genuinely need it, but not for nouveau riche twats with gold plated iphone 5s.

The American group aspect isn't a positive either. In some sense I can understand Chinese businesspeople screwing each other (and us) left, right and center. It's endemic here. Almost cultural. But in theory a foreign group should know better. Were they to try and pull some of those "punishments" they've loaded into this garbage contract back home they could very easily wind up in jail.

Five star rating on facebook means nothing too. No idea how you attain that...just get a bunch of your mates to click 5 stars and the F5 key over and over again? Isn't that how Gangnam Style got 2 billion hits on the Tube of You? Pay FB to "promote" your group? Likely even Stormfront.org has a 5 star facebook rating.

Keep looking. New Life ESL seems like a pretty accurate name. That shit will leave you wishing you *had* a new life.

[fat_chris]

[NoBillyNO]

[svaldezi]

[roadwalker]

I'm not usually one to question the posters but this one, seems too red-flaggy by half. I think it might be an STFU wind up. If it's not, OP don't accept the offer.

On edit: well, there does seem to be something to it, at least on the intertubes. Really bad contract though, even for someone without any credentials. Of course I didn't send away for more info or anything so I can't verify the contracts are like the one posted. But China sure seems like the place to be! I haven't been reading enough of the ads recently, apparently.

[Babala]

Terrible contract!