Job Discussion Forums

[Double Clutcher]

The university I am at tried unsuccessfully last year to make the teachers here pay electricity, gas, and water bills. Now the FAO is doing it again and it looks like it will happen this time around. I am wondering if many teachers out there pay their own utility bills and how much money(especially electricity) they are. All of us teachers here will negotiate our contracts for next year soon and this information would be helpful to us.

[HunanForeignGuy]

This is unfortunately becoming a more-and-more common practice among third-tier institutions here in China, particularly in the RMB 4,000 - RMB 5,000 range.

The only way around it is to find another job. It's unacceptable, particularly in the lower end brackets.

[tw]

In my opinion it is absolutely wrong for any public school to tell the FT to pay for electricity, water, and gas. If they are supposed to provide FULL housing with all necessities, then these three essentials should be included and provided free of charge -- even if they only put a tiny dent in the FT's piggy bank. What these schools are doing is nothing but penny pinching and I wouldn't be surprised if the FAO pockets the money into their own pocket while getting reimbursement from the school.

[7969]

the university where i work makes teachers pay the utilities. however they give us RMB200/month to help cover it. i've never come close to using that monthly allowance yet.

i also paid in zhengzhou, no allowance given there, but the bill for nearly 10 months was less than RMB200. i was a bit surprised at how low it was but i wasnt arguing.

[chengdude]

I pay electricity, phone, and internet at my school, but like 7969, I recieve a monthly stipend to cover them. Unlike 7969, I have gone way over...stupid south-of-the-Yangtze construction/HVAC mentality. Hopefully that sorry state of affairs is over along with winter.

I receive/pay the bills myself, so I know there's no flim-flam there, but surely there's some creative budget accounting/reporting going on somewhere.

(to the OP's request for the gory details: my 2-month power bill for late December to late February was over 800 RMB; otherwise it's in the 150-200 per-month range)

[abusalam4]

[abusalam4]

[jwbhomer]

I taught at two different universities in Guangdong and had to pay at least part of the utilities at both. The only thing that was totally free was the internet. At one school I received an extra housing allowance which more than covered the utility bills.

[abusalam4]

[jammish]

I have to pay utilities, but I am in a private flat (rent free and provided by the school) off campus. Also my salary is way higher than average, so it's a much smaller proportion.

Add in the fact that most places don't have proper heating (so everything is heated from extraordinarily inefficient Aircon/heater units) and it seems unreasonable that FTs on 4000 a month should have to pay bills, which could quite easily add to over 1000 per month in the height of summer/winter.

[brsmith15]

I remember my boss at IBM once telling me one of the company's unspoken rules: What you give to someone, you don't take away later.

I would look to negotiate a 500 - 800 RMB stipend to cover utilities.

[7969]

[Steppenwolf]

A storm in a teacup? How much do utilities amount to?
I have never had to pay except in cases where I had exceeded a set allowance, say, telephone bills in excess of 50 kuai a month. Electricity too can cost a bit so it's up to you to use it more wisely; why should FTs be treated better than local teachers?

[cj750]

[jammish]