Job Discussion Forums

[Scrabble King]

I received this in my email box yesterday and thought it was a prank for sure. Then I called down to hell to ask Satan if it was snowing down there. When he said "no". I showed it to my Chinese wife who works as a HR compliance specialist for Mercer in Beijing, and she said it is true, and reminded me that some teachers had recently sued a big English chain and won a $150,000 settlement from a Chinese court for being forced to hand out flyers on the street. There was some other guy who went after Disney and won as well. Anyway, this is the email I received:


“Dear teaching colleagues and fellow expats,

Did you know that you have 15 employee rights as an expat employee in China? If not, then you probably signed an illegal contract that forfeits 30%-40% of your wages/salary. This is not a joke. 70% of us were never told about these rights that kicked in late 2012 when President Xi Jinping ordered that foreigners stop being exploited. Recruiters and China employers do not want us to know about these rights. Why? This link will explain it better than we can (see the third post in the thread):

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/phpbbforum/china-s-silent-scam-steals-40-of-foreign-teacher-salaries-t181524.html?sid=8b7673d92c19a07a8178ed1cbcc805de

The very same thing is happening to thousands of China foreign teachers. If you sign an illegal contract you are implicitly waiving your employee rights. The solution for you must wait until you renew your contract. BUT, you can help us warn others by emailing this message to 10 of your teaching colleagues, and ask them to do the same. If you do nothing, you will continue to forfeit 30% – 40% of your total wages. But, these rights only apply to expats working with a Z visa. If you are working on an L, F, M, or X visa (even part time tutoring) you have no rights and are subject to arrest and deportation as an illegal alien. More information can be found about your employee rights at http://chinascamwatch.org. Best wishes for the New Year!

Taylor, Frank & Johnny

China Scam Watch”

[vikeologist]

Thanks.

Now we don't have to wonder about your new alias.

[mike w]

CFTU - Strike 1 !!!!

[toteach]

Whenever I see CFTU written on this forum, my brain always reads STFU instead...

[nomad soul]

[Guerciotti]

If you please, I'd like to see that court case. I have friends who can translate it for me. Would you mind citing the court case? The one where the plaintiff won $150,000 in a Chinese court, from their Chinese employer, for handing out flyers? I must see it.

TIA

[roadwalker]

By definition, an illegal contract is void. Why would Chinese law state that a contract is illegal, but hey, if you sign it, it's ok and enforceable?

More anti-scam scam spam, ma'am.

[wangdaning]

Essentially, this poster is lying to users of the forum. If one were to follow his/her expert advice would one not be able to demand compensation. This user posts as an authority after all.

[Bud Powell]

[Guerciotti]

[Scrabble King]

Sorry fellas, I never mentioned any CFTU organization - just the fact that I received a chain letter advising me that us expats got more rights than we ever knew about.

How many of you honestly knew we had these rights or they were upgraded when Xi Jinping came to power?

"Anyway, I cut and pasted this from my source which I cannot link according to new Shexpat forum policies. I think you will agree this is quite devious and may have already stolen quite a few bucks out your pocket or those of your friends. It is often used in conjunction with the China Tax Scam as you will see below...

* You have the right to receive an original hard copy of your contract that is signed and chopped (red sealed) at the time you sign an employee agreement.

* You have the right to receive a written job description prior to signing your contract. It is up to YOU to make sure that job description is specific, in English, and not so vague that your hours, working days, work location, pay rate, holidays, bonuses, visa costs, air fare reimbursement, release letters, etc are clearly spelled out in no uncertain terms.

* You cannot be compelled nor forced to do anything not specified in your job description (which you should insist becomes and exhibit to your contract and also gets signed and chopped. This stops you from being used as a marketing monkey in shopping malls on the street handing out flyers).

* Your probationary period cannot exceed one month for each year of your employment contract. So if you are asked to sign a one year contract, your probation period should not exceed one month. If however, you sign a contract that specifies a 3 or 6 month probationary period, you are implicitly waiving your right on this issue.

* If you hold an FEC (Foreign Experts Certificate) you cannot be compelled to work unpaid overtime hours without your consent. This one protection alone is worth about 5,000 - 10,000 rmb every month to some expat teachers in China

* You have the right to receive both an invitation letter and release letter free of charge (These are both legal requirements and administrative duties of the employer)

* You have a right to a Z visa if employed in China (Again, this is a legal duty of the employers and if anyone tells you that you only get a Z visa after you complete your probationary period they are surely a scam operation to be avoided).

I don't care who the messengers are so long as I get the information that others have been hiding from me.

How many of you guys ever walked over to SAFEA or the Ministry of Labor to ask for a copy of your employee rights? I am grateful that somebody bothered to do this and translate them into English and got the word out - even if they used a chain letter. At least now I know.

This is an ESL Forum and these employee rights and labor laws should be a sticky here. The fact they are hidden from people really makes me wonder WTF is going on. Aren't we supposed to help one another here? Would you rather not know you had these rights?"

Btw... there are 15 rights in all but the other 8 are really obvious ones like: "Employers must provide a safe work environment for their employees," sick leave, maternity leave, etc. My wife said the Chinese professionals had these rights for more than 10 years, and we were just granted the same rights in 2012 - not some special laws for us - just the same as all other "professionals".

[mike w]

Why does the phrase 'teaching grannie to suck eggs' come to mind?

CFTU - Strike 2

[Bud Powell]

Scrabble King,

You may be well-informed (or at least well-intentioned), but your persistence after being told by forum members that your behavior closely resembles that of a CFTU spammer suggests that you are the same person.

Now, if you want to retain credibility, go use the search button and look up CFTU or just browse threads from a year ago. That'll show you that this has all been hashed over dozens of times.

If you aren't a spammer, you'll take this advice and return to the forum to discuss something else.

If you persist, be prepared for a lot of negative responses.

Capice?

[Scrabble King]

Sorry to tell you Bud Powell but you are barking up the wrong tree. From what I can see nobody else in this forum brought up this subject before and the topic is a valid one. For whatever reasons unknown to me, you don't seem to like the subject matter for some reason so you attack me ????

Do you really want people not to know their legal rights so they will:

- Be forced to work unpaid overtime hours every week?

- Used as a marketing monkey on the street passing out flyers?

- Get screwed out of their full holiday and sick leave and bonus pay?

- Get extorted for invitation and release letter fees?

- Have to work in 3 different locations a day?

- Get assigned split hour working shifts?

- Forced to work six days instead of five?

Can we focus on the subject of Expat Employee Rights In China? Can you contribute anything of value on this topic?

[asiannationmc]