Job Discussion Forums

[TONS]

My husband has had an offer from the SABIS school in Abu Dhabi. He has been offered an administrative position. The salary offered is $1 000. I have read a lot of bad things on SABIS. Can someone share their experiences of this particular school? Is the salary good? I read the cost of living is higher in Abu Dhabi - can a family of three survive on this salary?

[helenl]

I can't comment on SABIS but the short answer to all other questions is NO

[trapezius]

If they pay around $1500-$2000 for teaching positions, why would they pay $1000 for an admin position?

What position is this?

I hope you are being offered housing, because rents for a family of 3 (one-bed apt) will at least be Dhs. 4,000 a month, which is already more than the salary. So, it seems like housing is being offered. Is it furnished, or do you have to furnish it from your pocket? What other benefits are being offered?

If you just want to survive, yes, assuming housing is given, it is possible to survive. Families of 4, 5 and even 6 people survive on salaries of Dhs. 2-3,000. But you won't be able to have a good life, in my opinion.

[stoth1972]

checks your PMs, tons.

[shimmeringsands]

If your husband takes that job he's mad! Just read some of my previous comments. Latest from SABIS is that in their military school 12 members of staff left. More and more are leaving. They just rearrange chairs on the Titanic. SABIS has real recruitment problems. I wonder why

[shimmeringsands]

Even if he takes this job thinking he might find other work in Abu Dhabi he will not be able to. You see Mr G (director in AD) will place a 12 month working ban on him. There is nothing worse being held to ransom by these people, trust me I know. SABIS/choueifat are screwing money right left and center from the Emiratis and they offer $1000 , its a real joke !

[abudhabi]

Firstly TONS, I am presuming that your husband, is a Western, native speaker from the US, UK, Oz, NZ, Canada or some similiar country. If not, most of this advice may not be relevant.

I once applied for a job which paid $100 a month with housing - in an eastern European country that I wanted to work in. I knew the uni couldn't afford to pay much and for my professional development and the cultural experience, I felt it a good deal. And things were cheap.

But to work for $1000 in a developed country like the UAE, where your fellow professionals will be earning 2 and a half to 5 times your salary, where you will have to draw upon your own savings to make ends meet, and some students may well have more pocket money than your salary, is ludicrious!

Trapezius is correct to say that some large families do survive on such low salaries - but I would expect that these are not Western families - Indian most likely, whose prospects in their home country are less than even the meagre salary offered for this job. Any family living on such a salary will have expectations of standard of living well below what most Westerners (and many fellow Indians!) would tolerate.

As for Mr G placing a work ban on you - no, he can't. When I was threatened by a former employer in the UAE by a ban, I went to the director of the immigration dept, showed him my working status in my passport and he said that I do not fall into the category that can be banned by my employer. A colleague in the same position did the same thing and got the same reply. This is not to say that informally Mr G could try to make things hard for you and scare off prospective employers.

[veiledsentiments]

Surely the $1000 is a typo??

VS

[stoth1972]

Not a typo, VS. Our OP is S. African.

SS said:

[trapezius]

I am still curious as to what position this is.

Taxi drivers and secretaries earn $1,000 a month (some of them more) in Saudi Arabia easily.

Is this a secretarial position, or a position of similar level? If so, the salary makes sense. If not, it doesn't make sense, and is an insult.

[stoth1972]

Trap, Choueifat tends to pay their teachers around $1500/mo. They will try and take advantage of certain nationalities (in this case S. african) and pay them less-working in the administration and sometimes in the classroom.

[shimmeringsands]

i want to make things clear about the employment ban. Firstly a company in the UAE cannot place a ban upon an employee, it is the labour department which does this. However, an employer CAN if he/she wishes issue a recommendation of a ban to the labor office. This means , for example, Choueifat could argue that, even though, as a teacher you are supposed to be exempt from the ban, you should not work for another school because of the "confidentiality clause " which SABIS places in some contracts.

Therefore, Mr G , if he has the inclination could easily prevent someone from leaving and working for another company. Moreover, if an employee leaves before the end of their contract, an automatic year long ban is placed on them. There are two types of contract in the UAE 1. A unlimited term contract and 2. a limited term contract. SABIS / Choueifat issue "limited term" contracts usually for a period of one year.

Due to the increasing number of employees leaving SABIS they are changing the nature of their contracts to include the confidentiality clause. Prospective teachers should be fully aware of this. In addition, SABIS operate several other companies using different names, for example INTERED and although you may be hired by SABIS/Choueifat you may find on your VISA that you are sponsored by INTERED. What does this mean? It means that someone who is not a qualified teacher can be hired and used in schools. Last year, several "non-native" "unqualified " teachers were teaching English. THis is actually breaking the guidelines laid down by the employment office. However, SABIS flout the rules when they feel like it.
Beware I cannot emphasize this, read your contracts thoroughly before signing them.

[stoth1972]

[shimmeringsands]

Stoth

You are absolutely correct in commenting that some of the unqualified teachers are given the title "supervisor" etc However, there is at this time a HOD of English who is not a qualified teacher. The designation on the VISA is of course not actually "teacher", but " supervisor". What an utter farce.

It is also true that SABIS's sponser here in the UAE has considerable "wasta". However, I have learned recently ( from an extremely reliable source ) that they are in real danger of losing contracts with the PPP project and other projects in the pipeline. Perhaps finally the Emiratis are waking up and smelling the coffee. In point of fact, in the military High School this year only 2 students achieved the satisfactory TOEFL score which has seriously undermined the SABIS mantra that " no student is left to fail in peace" What utter nonsense. You see when they can't cherry-pick students to sit external examinations, these students just fail terribly.

Two HOD's have left the military school this year. One after 4 years and the other after donkey years working for them. They could sense the danger early on and got out while the going was good. It is rare for any " choueifitised" person to leave the system after such a long time especially when some of them have such a cushy life.

I learn that this year they have over 400 new cadets with only a handful of teachers. Mr B has declared that perhaps 50 in a class is possible using his superior system. Utter nonsense. God help anyone who works in that place.

[TONS]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. The job offered to him entailed meeting with parents, organising sport events for the school and teaching a few classes. We have decided not to take the position. It seems South Africans are being paid less than other teachers. My husband has ten years teaching experience and holds a BA degree.