Job Discussion Forums

[Non Sequitur]

Not sure I understand prev post.
In the public sector you don't have a 14, 16 or 18 hour contract.
You have a 20-hour max contract.
You are then scheduled semester to semester for actual hours which are usually around 16, occasionally 14 or 18.
I have only done 18 for a few weeks at a time to get over absences.
If you do 16 in Semester One, you don't negotiate again in S2 if the school schedules you for 14 contact hours.
Hell, the schedules are usually communicated on the Sunday night before classes start.
Not a time to start negotiating!

[wawaguagua]

[JB140767]

[wangdaning]

I have two contracts. The joy of it all. At most I am at 20, but some are given overtime without notice/negotiation. Or so they say.

[Non Sequitur]

'had 10 to 16 teaching hours stipulated'
This is the same as max 20, it just gives a bracket instead of a single figure max.
'Max 20' gives the school more latitude than what is in effect 'max 16' and of course it gave a much higher tipping point for overtime to kick in.
Within that cap you got varying hours.
The point being that the actual hours are not stated in your or any contract because as has been mentioned class schedules are posted literally hours before classes start and the same contract applies in S2 without having to be renegotiated.
I've asked why schedules are so late and was told that enrollments are not completed until students are on campus. Not sure I believed this as S2 teaching schedules are similarly late and presumably the school has all enrollments finalised by then.
I have my own marking system for Oral English which takes a bit of setting up. I really only execute a planned lesson in W2.

[JB140767]

'had 10 to 16 teaching hours stipulated'
This is the same as max 20, it just gives a bracket instead of a single figure max.


I ....ah.. ooh oooeeer aaah......what??????? - it stipulates the maximum as 16. The bracket is 10 to 16. No 20. Nowhere is 20 mentioned. You can do more that 16, you can do more that 20, but the contract max is !6, anything more is overtime.

'had 10 to 16 teaching hours stipulated'
This is the same as max 20

You are just having a laugh now right? Must be. Your say ng that a stipulated max of 16 is....the same as max 20 - what? Ha? ahhhh....erm....



'Max 20' gives the school more latitude than what is in effect 'max 16' and of course it gave a much higher tipping point for overtime to kick in.
Within that cap you got varying hours.

This is just gibberish by now - my contract was max 16, end of. Overtime kicks in at 16, we got paid overtime, on a weekly maximum of 16, everything over = overtime


The point being that the actual hours are not stated in your or any contract because as has been mentioned

No - a range is stipulated 10 to 16 with 16 as THE MAX

cl schedules are posted hours before classes start and the same contract applies in S2 without having to be renegotiated.

NO NO NO. I taught second years, got my schedule for september usually in mid to late june

It sounds like you work in a different environment, late schedules, 20 hours max. Shifting hours from semesters, all kinds of unacceptable shennanigans. Thats too bad I'm not sure why you assume that all unis have the same crappy / laxidasical attitude, but, its not true

[Non Sequitur]

You say your hours are stated in your contract. They are not - only an indication of where each semester schedule might fit.
A 10 to 16 bracket is the same as Max 20 in effect. At the time you sign your contract you do not know what hours you will be teaching.
BTW I've been in the ESL game since 04, develop and sell ESL resources and have recently published a book on China ESL.
I get a steady stream of PMs from newcomers who lose interest in regular postings because of OTT rants.

[buravirgil]

Awwwww, man. It's on now!

On the Saudi board, I think it was VeiledSentiments, or maybe a user with a camel head as an avatar, that cracked me up about money and ESL when relating what they said when students asked how much they made: Wildly wave their arms above their head to shout A Million Dollars.

But that was around 2009, or so. But good times, good times.

[Markness]

Take your monthly salary and divide it by your teaching hours and this should work out your minimum amount that you should work for. For example, teacher makes 6000RMB a month and works 15 hours a week, they should get 6000/60 = 100 yuan an hour minimum. Usually in the contract it will state a nicer rate than that, but that is the ballpark figure I usually work with. If you're working for less than that then just don't go to those classes. Say "No thanks, that is too low and mathematically doesn't make sense at all". No FT I've seen has ever worked for 30RMB a class. That is just ridiculous. This isn't the 1980s, that rate is just a rip-off. They are more at your mercy than the other way around. Overtime only comes around when someone is sick or they bailed on the current school they work for. Seldomly you'll see a school pull-off hogwarts school of wizardry and just make-up some classes for you to do extra (unless you're including little things like a Christmas class, or a book club, but that's up to you to decide whether you want to charge overtime for something like that).

[JB140767]

[buravirgil]

I thought I understood the terms of my contract until you guys went at it. Can either of you explain in the simplest terms possible the difference of interpretation? I mean, forego who's correct. Maybe that's insulting/patronizing/whatever and I'm supposed to read through the thread a few more times...but damn.

Here's mine: 15 teaching periods per week on average*; A period is construed as 45min, followed by a 10min break.

*So, like, hours can be heavier in one semester than another. As well, what week a class, or sets of classes, begin and end can significantly alter the schedule and result in an additional subject added. I've consistently been assigned different subjects since arriving. Tiny staff. I'm just not sayin' how tiny.

Who's old? Everybody's old, you freaks. Ain't nobody young anymore.
I'm sayin' that because a high school teacher showed up in the town next door: 24, tall, British, handsome. He's an atomic bomb to the uni gals.

[JB140767]

[buravirgil]