Job Discussion Forums

[Sweetie Girl]

After two years at this university where I have been treated reasonably well......the dears are trying to get out of all of the travel benefits that the contract says they should pay....

Does any one have any thoughts SG

[Voldermort]

Buy a shotgun, saw off the barrel, walk into the office and demand they pay you for your sanity.

[Roger]

How do you know you are entitled to your travel allowance?

If you know it then so do they! If you cannot prove it then they have a strong argument against you!

BUt travel allowance is only RMB 2200. IT's not a big deal, is it?

[anthyp]

[chengdude]

More info please...

[Sinobear]

What's with the PSB? They're responsible for your residence permit and your (wait...hahahahahahahaha) safety, NOT your work status or any contractual problems. Just like your consulate/embassy - their job does not entail petty grievances with schools.
According to Roger, we should be paying the schools for the honor of teaching there, not being paid.

Sweetie Girl, what does your contract say?

Cheers!

[anthyp]

Please note I did not advise the lady to actually go to the PSB ...

No more than I think she has a lawyer in GZ she can run to. I merely suggested she threaten to do these things if her school refuses to ante up. In fact, I don't think it is possible to get them to pay if they are absolutely dead-set on refusing to. You have to try to scare them into doing so.

Carry on then, mortals.

[latefordinner]

anthyp, there's an old chess expression: "A threat is stronger than its execution". Unfortunately, sometimes your opponent knows this as well.

[yamahuh]

Very true, but sometimes the possibility of a threat's execution is exactly the deterrent needed. We ran into a similar situation a couple of days ago when we were informed that we would be paid early for June.
"Cool" we thought until we saw that they weren't paying us for the whole month even though we had argued (and documented) the fact that they would pay us in full as they were wanting us to cool our heels for a week or so before starting to teach the dreaded summer classes.
We were informed that the headmaster was refusing to pay us the additional 3000 RMB owed to us because he was paying us early instead...WTF??

"So pay us on our regular day" I said
"Not possible, that is all he will pay you for June because you didn't work during the exam period" I was told.

"Well I'm afraid that is unacceptable" I countered and reminded the person that we had reached an agreement not two weeks prior. Further to this I went on to state that as they were not honouring their side of the agreement we felt no compulsion to honour ours; they could pay us the monies owed to us and find someone else to teach the Summer Classes that (at that point) were due to start in less than 48 hours.

Bear in mind that our contract was finished at the end of June and we stayed on to teach the summer course (instead of travelling) only because we had reached a mutually beneficial agreement. Also bear in mind that we're the only FT's here.

15 minutes later it was settled and we picked up our FULL pay


The crazy thing is that they were trying to screw us out of 3000 RMB when they were being paid 120,000 by students who wanted to take summer classes with us

I don't get it ... but having a backbone in China is an absolute necessity.

[andrew_gz]

Roger wrote(or scribbled) "BUt travel allowance is only RMB 2200. IT's not a big deal, is it?"

C'mon on Roger since when is 2200 RMB a trifle surely not by your wages.
So, where do you come off soundin' so flush.
A deal is a deal.
They should pay what's do.

[kev7161]

I agree that if it's in the contract, it should be, MUST be paid. But, here's yet another "newbie" showing up out of nowhere with a complaint, yet not enough information for any of us to TRULY know what kind of advice to give her. Wonder if she'll return to let us know the full gist of the problem?

[SheZook]

I've been fairly lucky I think. Yes, I have issues with my school from time to time but they are fairly minor compared to some others and apart from occasionally letting off some steam, I am inclined to limit my complaints as much as possible.
I started at this school in February, signing a one year contract that entitled me to 30 days paid holiday over Summer as well as all the national holidays, and 8000RMB return airfare + 2200RMB travel bonus upon completion of my contract. Arrived at the school on February 22 but did not start teaching until February 27 (total of 2 days for that month) and the school paid us 1/3 of a months salary for that time. We usually can expect to have a day or so off (paid) at the end of every month when the students have their monthly exams. They also stated that during summer we have 2 months holiday and that they would pay us our full salary for both months but we may be required to teach some classes during one of those months. However, they have just told us that they haven't planned anything for that month so we can have the full 2 months off and they will still pay us for both months (this remains to be seen - if I receive both July and August salaries I will be very happy). The school told us we could finish teaching on June 26, despite classes continuing until today and when I checked my bank balance at the end of June, I realised that the school had paid us our full June salary + half our airfare + half our travel bonus - all without being asked!
My cynical side says that maybe they are hoping (expecting) us to now do a runner so that they can hire "cheaper" FT's for next semester, but in giving them the benefit of the doubt, I think perhaps they are, in some way, making up for their lack of generosity in other areas. Having said that, it remains to be seen whether they will try and pull a stunt at the end of my contract by witholding the rest of my bonus/airfare.

[tofuman]

Yamahuh, I am also puzzled by the penny pinching that goes on.

I see two possible expalnations:
1. FTs are not really generating that much money.
2. The money that FT's are cheated out of goes directly into someone's pocket or slush fund.

While an individual might not get his hands on the tuition, he might be able to keep part, at least, of the money he cheats you out of.

Zenmeyang?

[nolefan]

[yamahuh]