Job Discussion Forums

[AJ88]

Are you sure. I know guys with Edex at KSU who came home for summer and went back to Riyadh with Edex.

God knows where they are now tho

[rollingk]

. . . and Edex continues advertising. Maybe it's just a matter of rewrapping or subcontracting. No one's really gonna pay much attention anyway and may not even notice. It's probably just about greasing someone else's pockets, nothing to do with quality at all. That's usually the case with these oh-so-big changes.

That'll show'em, huh??

[Amerrycan Muslim]

A friend just visited me yesterday who came back to KSA on his EDEX iqamah... He said he got to Riyadh went into the office and saw that it was "going downhill with no brakes" and quit... He is heading out in a couple weeks... He said they have 700 or so teachers on their payroll and many contracts have been lost... Good time to look for bargain prices in Riyadh it seems...

[CANDLES]

700 teachers out of work and sitting with a Coke?? bottle (in a brown bag naturally) on Riyadh street corners begging for money for air fare!

Take a picture, take a picture!

[SheikMilkShake]

Is it official now that EdEx lost contract and ICEAT is the undisputed one and only contractor for KSU?

it is not funny, Candles.. If I were in their shoes,
I would just take the next flight out to UAE ASAP, then see the next step.

[CANDLES]

Exactly....so you need money for the visa/air tickets/hotels, or will a smile do?

Personally I think it's incredibly funny; used to work for the b*****ds!

[AJ88]

What baffles me to the point of amazement is that Edex are still actively recruiting.

Surely these guys should just give up.

[The Fifth Column]

[AJ88]

Addicted to recruiting?

I wonder if there's meetings for that

[ahmedkhan00]

They have been telling the new recruits that they will be sending them to KSA in December for the term that starts in January. I doubt that is going to happen.

[AJ88]

[Jonasval]

I am a current KSU teacher and Education Experts employee and I can give an update. The situation has deteriorated rapidly over the past few months so let this be a warning to any teacher thinking of coming here.

Al Hussan, ICEAT, and EdEx are the 3 contractors. EdEx did not lose the KSU contract. They lost the Humanities building contract. There are two buildings at the Preparatory Year: Science and Humanities. Ed Ex still has the former but lost the latter. They had to get rid of over a hundred teachers, but still maintain another hundred or more (not sure exactly how much) on site.

Below is a summary of recent events:

-EdEx paid the salaries for June seven days late (July 7th!).

-KSU created two vacation dates for teachers. The first one began on the 6th of June and ended on the 7th of July. The second one began on the 8th of July and ended August the 17th. Both vacations included the Eid holidays. The first group came back and worked for a bit, then went on holiday. The second group simply added it on to their holiday, so it worked out the same.

-When the second group of teachers arrived back on campus, half of them were fired without warning as KSU suddenly gave the contract to Al- Hussan. EdEx transferred some teachers but could not maintain most of them. Some teachers had already paid for their next 6 months accommodation, some had paid school fees for children, others had purchased vehicles or furnished homes. This came out of nowhere.

-Of the remaining group, EdEx had a core group of about 70 'permanent' teachers, who were assured of employment for the the academic year 2014-2015. After them were 'temporary' teachers, all of whom were initially fired by KSU then retained, some of whom were given contracts as short as 3 months by EdEx as substitutes after Al-Hussan failed to bring in sufficient teachers.

- The poor sods that remained in the program were forced to work very heavy schedules, doubling up on classes every other day due to the lack of teachers. This is still going on.

- During late August, EdEx sent their employees their customary pay slips, indicating their pay for August 2014. Nearly all the teachers that had taken the second vacation had their pay deducted by various amounts, roughly between 30% to 50% of their entire salary. The reason? They were out of the country during the Eid holiday, thus forfeiting some money. Never mind KSU themselves set the dates and EdEx booked the tickets, or that KSU paid EdEx the full amount, which EdEx subsequently pocketed and told teachers that they were not given the money by the university. This was a very controversial issue which resulted in threats of legal action, physical violence, and media exposure until the Preparatory Year higher ups had a meeting to discuss the issue. EdEx was told to return the money to the teachers.

-Around the 2nd of September, teachers once again threatened legal action and even a strike in response to the late salary payment, in response to which EdEx sent out an email apologizing profusely, saying that the money would be deposited into all accounts by the 9th of September, and that it would never happen again.

-Finally, and here's the cherry on top, tomorrow is the 10th of September and none of Education Experts teachers have been paid for August! Forget the deductions, not even a penny has been given.

-As of 7:42 pm local time on the 9th, no teacher has been paid. Teachers are now poised to strike and there will be major issues with classes. There are more students than ever at the PY but there are still classes with no teachers, two weeks into the academic year.

This is my first post on Dave's ESL. I have no bias against EdEx or affiliation with their competition, I am simply one of their 'lowly' teachers. They were decent and paid 99% of their teachers their rightful salary the past couple of years. In fact, they have done several good things, some of which I can list briefly:

- Gave teachers an unexpected pay raise in the fall of 2013
- Paid significant money to have prominent scholars such as Stephen
Krashen come to KSU to give a talk
-Organized trips, events, and cultural events for their teachers
- Resisted efforts by current and past Preparatory Year officials to
'whitewash' the teaching staff. They were told explicitly that they were
hiring too many black and asian origin teachers who, although they were
qualified and native with many born in the West, were not 'native enough'.
Meaning, had the wrong skin and eye colour and looked too similar to the
low-skill workers brought in to the country. EdEx continued hiring
anybody who fit the criteria regardless of how they looked.


However they have completely fallen apart ever since they lost the Humanities contract. There may be significant financial issues going on, and they may not last much longer. There are already rumours of them being unable to renew iqamahs due to their status with the Ministry of Labor, and that they are currently under investigation.

[fledex]

In reality, Edex faced many of the same issues in 2009 and 2010 when I was with them. Teachers had to strike in 2009 at one site to receive their pay. People were always being cut loose or moved to forsaken postings with no explanation or warning. They often had to drop newly rented apartments. Getting reimbursed for most things was always a problem.

I don't think it was really much better in intervening years between then and now; except, for some time a little effort was made to improve things in Riyadh by doing some teacher training there. I don't think it really did improve, though. It never improved in other sites, as far as I know.

[CANDLES]

So nothing new then! I was with them in 2012 and they messed me( and a whole lot of others) up with promises of Iqama, decent accommodation and to go home during holidays, which never materialised, plus the salary and the overtime was short changed, so had to fight to get my full salary.

Plus I was one of them who was helping out with extra hours when EDEX could not supply enough teachers or who were not deemed fit to teach at KSU. Teachers were constantly being fired from the Humanities section and we had to cover. I was with ICEAT.

As for KSU wanting 'white faces only' ironic really considering their HR is full of Asians, Egyptians, Palestinians, etc... whilst a couple of white English women are in the 'Personal Development' department? Is that 'white' enough for them? Sorry, but Middle East is full of rubbish, with their backward mentality and their vision that they are 'better' than the rest of the world. They're NOT! Just more money!

[nomad soul]