Job Discussion Forums

Sofa_king · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 15 Location: Shanghai

I have a friend that is having a tough go of it here in China. Firstly, her company is a horrible company that is bending the contract at will in their favour, forcing her into terrible situations. Whenever she brings up a legitimate complaint backed by the contract, it is ignored. I won't go into specifics, but the professional relationship is unhealthy for both parties. Secondly, bad things are happening back home, and she needs to get home ASAP for family reasons. If she quit the company, her contract states that she must pay the company a ridiculous amount.

If she were to break the contract and leave China (pull a runner) without paying any compensation, what would be the ramifications? Could she enter China at a later date as a tourist (as she has no future desire to work here again), or would her passport be flagged for future entry? Secondly, could a Chinese company seek legal reimbursement in her home country (Canada)?

jammish · Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 1704

I really can't see someone 'doing a runner' leading to future problems with them coming to China as a tourist!!! It probably won't even mean any problems with them working as an ESL teacher in China again - although working again in the same province could cause trouble.

danswayne · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 237

I know more than one person who has ran and some are even working in the same city as before.

latefordinner · Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 973

Tell her to (discreetly) pack her bags and not to look back. Following her would be too much trouble for the clowns, even if they could pull it off.

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

The police have bigger fry to go for than absconding laowais, and the border guards are not in charge of stopping laowais in flight from abusive Chinese laobans.

The school would have to notify too many authorities and press charges relevant enough to warrant legal action! She can certainly move around China without hassles!

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

jeffinflorida · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:10 pm Post subject:

I pulled a runner. nothing happened - except a bunch of JERKS here on Dave's give you their holier-than-thou speech.

Came back into china and left at least 10 times since then.

If you have a Z visa they may cancel it and never tell you so be careful on that issue.

abusalam4 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 143

I know of certain concrete cases where schools in a dispute with a foreign teacher have threatened the FT with somehting like that. They even once did it in my case and even threatened me with imprisonment.
I went to see the Provinical Bureau of Foreign Experts and told them about it. The now have the case on file and decided I had the right to leave that school. After all, it was the school that lost face....
My advice: Do the same, report it to the competent authorities, and mostly you will find that these threats are totally unfounded and not in accordance with the law. They simply try to frighten you and thus give China a bad name even in such things. After all, China is (not yet) the country known to respect fundamental human rights in all areas of daily life....Do not let them deceive you, what such schools tell you is rubbish!

HunanForeignGuy · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Posts: 989 Location: Shanghai, PRC

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

As one of 'those posters' who discourages runners I would like to have a say here. The reason that I generally discourage runners is not so much on moral grounds as on functional grounds. It seems to me that most people who do runners do so as they want out of a contract (justified or not), and then seek ways to justify this by finding fault with the employer. They have absolutely no intention of resolving the problems that they raise as they just want out. In some cases the runner is done in spite to try to get back at the employer yet it seems to me that it is the students and other/future foreign teachers who suffer the most - the school doesn't suffer, they just get a new teacher. And that's why I don't generally agree with runners.

OP you mention that the reasons for wanting to leave early are twofold - problems here and problems back home. Why not follow the advice given above and at least raise your concerns with the local authorities? Not so much to resolve these as it seems clear that your friend has already decided to leave, but more so to get these on the public record. If they are serious enough to warrant your friend breaking the contract then I am sure that there is a value to having these on the public record.

I do agree with others that doing a runner in most cases would not have an affect on your future chances of coming back to China. An exception being illegal activity such as taking money, benefits, or possesssions that are not rightfully yours, such as what jeffinflorida did when he did a runner - he took the return airflight money which the school paid him upfront based upon a one year contract even though he did not complete the contract. In that case I think that there would be legal basis for an employer to seek charges based upon 'obtaining benefit upon deception'. He got lucky that he was not banned from leaving the country until the monies were returned to the school, but I don't think it would a good idea to use his case as your benchmark. I doubt that that school offers upfront payments to teachers anymore which is a shame for new teachers!

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

ChinaAndrew · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 48 Location: china

most of the contracts i have seen have a clause that covers bereavment leave or leave for special circumstances. If this is the case just simply say there has been a death in the family, so no need to pay any compensation. The psb are there to protect us, not the employer and they know that. idle threats are just that. yes, i've 'done a runner' nothing happened to me. I got a new rpf and fec with another employer, don't play their game.

jeffinflorida · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:50 am Post subject:

See speaking of JERKS here popped up a few in question with their 5 cents of "information".

Sure they are the authority of everything...

To the op, do what you feel is in YOUR best interest, not the schools.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

the fact that Jeff got over a company is Jeffs history and not the OPs..and before anyone cst stones..in a culture of business practice that will victimize the worker.. it is little more than business as usual....