Job Discussion Forums

[matthew156]

Does Anyone have any info about this company? They seem to always be looking for teachers in Kuwait.

[matthew156]

All I could find out was that it was a recruitment company that is hiring for the Kuwaiti Min. of Nat. Def.

They (the ministry) used to offer 700KD which is what was on the contract they sent me but I turned it down. Now I see it's gone up to 750KD.

This is still not enough. The recruitment officer, condescendingly, said that he could live like a king for that wage.

Well the housing allowance was 250KD and transportation 50KD at that time also but I do not know if they increased that also. After researching the cost of living in Kuwait I deemed this amount insufficient and turned down the offer with a suggestion that I would take it for 900KD. That's when I saw the increase on the web.

Regads

Matt

[middleastman]

hi there,

theyre a shoddy outfit to say the least. I taught on the base for 3 years before SOS took over the contract, but have had contact with numerous colleagues who stayed with them. I would avoid them if I were you.

[matthew156]

thanx middleman

I did avoid them. I just wanted to know some details thats all. If you want you can PM me.

Regards

Matt

[kiefer]

??

[matthew156]

YUK

Matt

[globebouncing]

SOS Recruitment or EDU Educational Holding Group or Qualitas Consulting and Training is well known in Kuwait, especially by ministry of labour lawyers who reported regulary seeing defrauded employees.

During my time there, some of their cheeky hijinks included the following below.

1. The company conned an exiting employee into signing a document saying he had recieved all his benefits, by showing him his "flight ticket" to the US. This turned out to be an Arabic language unpaid itinerary to Bahrain!

2. An employee was blackmailed into signing away his legal benefits after the company threatened to cancel his residency. This would have resulted in he and his family being deported.

3. The company had the payroll girl and the guy who arranges flight tickets pretend to be lawyers to misrepresent Kuwaiti law to teachers requesting thir legal benefits.

4. Despite advertsing to the contary, the company did not offer one year contracts, but "continuous contracts". Unless you were fired (or died at your desk?) leaving the company at any point was deemed a resignation and reason to withhold gratuity.

5. The company offered a US woman with an education degree the "ladies' rate" of 450KD per month.

6. The company insisted an employee sign a paper stating she had been formally warned. The warning was for taking a sick day, despite the absence being well within the legal limit.

7. The company refused to cancel or transfer a visa for an employee moving to a new employer unless he signed away all vacation pay, gratuity, flights and sick pay.

8. The company brought in new employees weeks before the end of the year in order to collect signing bonuses from the Ministry of Defense. Within weeks the teachers were sacked and without being paid for several of the days worked.

9. The company printed various daily sign-in sheets. If, after signing in, a teacher left the site for an approved medical or government appointment, a new sign-in sheet would be circulated to create the impression that the employee was absent. The idea was to create a paper trail to justify cheating employees out of pay. Employees took to photocopying or taking a mobile pic of the sign-in sheet before leaving for approved appointments.

10. The company withheld the passport of a terminated employee, causing him to miss his flight. His embassy had to call to demand the passport's return.

11. Several employees fired without notice were told to exit company apartments the same day or face "apartment rental fees".

12. The company claimed to provide medical coverage but did not. Employees were able to access the public system after after a residence permit was in place, but that could take as much as six months. The old joke about the public system was that they prescribed an aspirin if you went in with a brain tumor, or anything else.

13. An employee whose visa had lapsed and whose passport was being held was chased down the hall by the SOS deputy general manager who screamed, "You are never getting out of Kuwait."

The company subsequently lost contracts all over town.

[lcanupp1964]

I have heard from a couple of teachers I used to work with and respect very much that SOS Recruitment would hire ten teachers, but the place of employment will only need 3, or 4 teachers. If all ten teachers show up and start working, the school will pick the "best" teachers after watching them for about 10 days and ask SOS to fire the �left over� teachers and send them home. All of the teachers would basically have the same amount of experience and education. I would stay away from SOS. Being a direct hire is the best way to go.

[usa_in_gulf]

Just to add my two cents-- 2 years ago I applied for and was hired for a Summer position with SOS. The position was for one month-month of July. I worked the month.. very, very, very easy work.. they did not need any teachers.. spent most of the month just sitting around... anyways, when the month was over.. (term ended/summer break for students and staff)-- I went to pick up my check from SOS. To my suprise, the check was not for the agreed salary--which was stated in my contract. I was informed that because, according to Kuwait law, a "work month" is 26 days. (This is true.. in Kuwait a worker can work 6 days.. and benefits/end of service benefits....are calculated on a 26 day month.) And since I only worked 5 days a week--school was open only 5 days a week--they "adjusted" my pay accordingly. Needless to say, I threw a fit! After a significant amount of demanding my rights.... they ended up giving me all my pay. I would suggest staying away from SOS.