Job Discussion Forums

[amenfiend]

I am working at a private School in Beijing, when I was recruited from the UK I was told in an email the incoming airfare would be reimbursed after the first semester. I have recently found out this is not true. The School has made numeous contract breaches and I have email records of my communications with them about their resolution.

The School did nothing about the contract breaches even though I gave them one month to fix them. I handed in my resignation and the School accepted it, they sent me a letter. We are currently discussing my leaving conditions and the School is trying to charge me a breach penalty $500.

Is this enforcable? They accepted my resignation, can they do this and how do they go about it. I have read on the boards they must go to court to get the money and prove I broke the contract is this true? They want me to sign an agreement saying they can take it from my next pay check. On the plus side they have agreed to my full salary and incoming airfare when I leave.

If I resign and they accept it is this regarded as a contract breach?

thanks

John

[tofuman]

You will be extremely lucky to get a thing from them. Contracts are merely bait to get foreigners over here. To the Chinese they are more or less meaningless.

But I speak from the distant reaches of China, not from Beijing, host to the Olympics. Perhaps things there are different.

[kev7161]

My advice is to make a copy of each of those emails you sent (along with the responses, if any). Bundle them together with a copy of your contract. Number each email for reference. Highlight the areas of your contract that have been breached (such as airfare reimbursement). In the margins of the contract, write (in ink) the email in which each communication you had is in reference to (for example, if you had asked in, say, email #5 about the airfare reimbursement, you may write, "See email #5"). Now, once you are finished doing all of this, make extra copies of each item: one for you, one for your school/FAO/principal, and one for a lawyer you are going to threaten to hire should they continue to pursue this.

Put your school's copies into a file folder or manilla envelope and hand-deliver it to the person that should get it. If one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, arrange a meeting between the two "hands" and have two sets of copies ready.

Sometimes we can only dispense advice here at Dave's with assumptions that you are 100% on the up and up. So, if you reported to work on time every day fully prepared to give your lessons, then you've done your job. If you were dressed professionally and handled yourself the same way, then you've done your job. If you politely and professionally asked about these breaches in your contract and gave your school reasonable time to respond and/or correct these problems, then you've done your job. In other words, search your soul and the past few months and make sure there is nothing the school can come back on you and say, "Well, you were blah, blah, blah . . . "

[clark.w.griswald]

My advice on this matter is somewhat different than the other two posters. I offer my opinion not to confuse you but to show that there are different ways of handling such situations.

I would first of all like to reiterate Kev's comments that if you have met all of the conditions of your contract to date then this will hold you in good stead as it will give the school no ammunition.

I assume that the breach penalty is stated in the contract, and if so that means that you agreed to it. As such the school has the legal right to require you to pay that penalty if you choose to end the contract for any reason.

The complicating factor is that in your opinion the school is in breach of the contract and this is in fact your reason for leaving. This is a very valid reason to call an end to a contract and it is supported in the relevant legislation so you should find some support there. The problem is that the decision as to who is right and wrong in this case will not likely be yours or the schools (nor ours here at Daves) but instead a mediator or a court. If you can come to an arrangement with the school that you are happy with, even if it is not the ideal outcome then this may prove to be the quickest, simplest, and at the end of the day the less stressful course of action to take.

I think that if I were in your position I would avoid signing the piece of paper they are asking you to sign. It is not going to help you at all, and I can't see any legal requirement for you to sign it. The school may say something along the lines of 'If you don't sign it then you won't get your airfare' or the like - but this is not a legally valid argument and would be unenforceable.

I wouldn't harp on about the $500 penalty but instead concentrate on ensuring that you get the other benefits that the school has promised you. I assume that your pay and one way airfare is more than the $500 so get this in your pocket first before you create a ruckus.

Once I had my pay and airfare reimbursement then I would start to go the heavy on the school in exactly the way that has been suggested by other posters here. Documentation is the key to winning such disputes as this is the only way to show a third party that you are right. I am no lawyer but if you are tenacious enough to follow this through then I believe that you have a good chance of getting everything that you are entitled to. It is not easy, but it is possible.

Of course by this stage you would be chasing the school for the $500, but at least you have most of your money where it belongs - in your pocket.

I would move right away from the concept of lawyers. Most would not be interested in a case for $500 and it could cost you close to this just chasing them up. I don't think that there is much that a lawyer can do in this particular case that you can't, so I would encourage you to contact the PSB and the other organizations that deal with foreigner affairs in order to find out what channels are available for mediation. There are bound to be such opportunities in Beijing.

[Roger]

Looks pretty bad for you, as far as I can see.
Bait-and-switch is a preferred tactic here to lure FTs to China.

IT's one thing to "complain" about perceived or real "breaches"; it's next to impossible to prove your point in many cases! Who would you want to arbitrate anyway?

One thing that rarely works is blaming them and shaming them into admitting anything.

One omission on your part: you didn't explain your legal status; have you been working on a resident's permit?

I guess, your best hope is an amicable settlement, and perhaps your embassy can assist you to some extent.

Otherwise...

[Brian Caulfield]

What worked for me in my first job when they only wanted to give me 2,000rmb for my return ticket to CAnada,was I acted insane . Which Roger will attest is not really acting on my part . I told them to call the police then Iput my fist through the head master's desk . I didn't mean to do it but I was livid. I said I was going to be deported . Well the head master just happened to have the money already counted in his drawer. I got the full fair minus 200 for the reparation of the desk .

[thepreferrednomenclature]

I would go ahead and see if you can hash some sort of deal whereby you negotiate your return to the school for an immediate portion of the airticket, salary, etc. See if you can get them to move in your direction. If you then decide to leave, with what percentage of compensation you have managed to secure, against what was promised contractually and undelivered by a deceptive school management, you could easily feel justified, couldn't you?

The way a vast number of schools in China disregard their own contractual commitments gets old after a while, doesn't it folks?

Why do they do it? Because they can.

[Louras]

Confucius he said:"Do not resign, take money and run". This is immoral, illegal and just plain wrong, but it's the only way to prevent you from getting screwed. I don't care what anybody says - no other advice will help you. Forget lawyers, forget good faith and do not trust or believe anything or anybody. I know this posting is gonna trigger 10000's of postings about good employers - I'm not holding my breath. I believe somebody is going to tell me that it's "chinese culture". Ok, but it is western culture to protect myself if I see a good screwin' coming.

[kev7161]

Actually, I don't disagree with Louras. However, my personal take on doing a "runner" is only to do so after you've exhausted every other option. This is in the case of those truly dishonest schools. I'm not making a judgement on your current school, OP, because I don't know any more than what you've told us. But, if you've really done your best to get problems solved to no avail and you feel or know something bad is going to happen to you, then by all means, pack it in, pack up, and go somewhere else.

(and most of us hope you'll spill the beans on which school allegedly treats their FTs so dishonestly!)

[amenfiend]

I have another meeting with the School on Monday and I hope we can clear this up. I'll take the advice given on here, and try and match things in the contract with Chinese law (buxiban.com) and print out my old email, showing when they breached the contract. I hope I can scare or shame them into paying. Going to court would not be a good idea, the boss used to have a high level Government position.

The fine adds upto my air-fare so if they do fine me, I'll still come away with my last salary. If I do a runner now, I would be financially the same but, the School and students would suffer. I don't want to involve my students so I'll stay until the end.

[tofuman]

"....the School and students would suffer. I don't want to involve my students so I'll stay until the end."

Typical attitude of those in the "helping professions." It is what allows business people to exploit, manipulate, abuse and victimize their employees. The administrators of your school don't seem to care about their students or the school. Why should you? This sort of emotional attachment which flies in the face of common sense is what used to be known as co-dependency. It's what led wives of abusive alcoholics to stick around until they were killed or maimed. It's what keeps nurses and teachers going back to work, even though they are being taken advantage of and injuring themselves by so doing.

You don't owe that school or your students a thing. They are not your students. They pay the school for their education, not you. If the school abuses you and drives you away, they are injuring the students, not you.

Don't be stupid or gutless. Do what is right for you. You don't have to be a victim. If you choose to be, don't whine about it. That is your choice.

[thepreferrednomenclature]

I promise you, this plan of confronting your school leaders with the facts during a formal meeting, though great on paper, will not work in this country. You don't scare anyone. No one has a tight enough relationship with you to feel shame on your behalf. Forget it.

If you want real concessions, never agree to a formal meeting; in China a formal meeting puts the powerful authority in its great element. The best deals of any kind in this country are done around some corner somewhere.

My advice: always meet the person with most authority in an informal environment, one on one. It's the only way you can find leeway to negotiate: you can both lose some sort of face, both make respective gains. Most importantly for the authority figure, any losses of face are private.

God knows, the Chinese love to negotiate. On the other hand, they hate, hate, hate forced concessions with a vehemence. Know why?

[pc-pocket]

[amenfiend]

the fee is in the standard government part of the contract which states "When either of the two parties fails to fulfil the contract of fails to fulfil the contract obligations according to the terms stipulated, that is, breaks the contract, it must pay a breach penalty of US $500 to 2,000 (or the equivalant in RMB)."

[Louras]

Your use of the term "stupulating" seems appropriate