Job Discussion Forums

[Francis_L]

Know your rights in China; you are covered under the Chinese labor law!! We all sign contracts, if you sign a contract for a year or more you are entitled to one months� severance pay for every year you complete with the company!!! I worked for EF for 2 years, contacted them, they of course said they owe me nothing, they paid me all that the contract said they needed to pay, I provided this information/proof, within a week I had 2 months pay in my bank account (and it's tax free!!).

Anyone working in China get the money you deserve!! Pass this information on to your friends and co-workers in China, this is the biggest rip off ESL teachers are getting. You have at least 2 years to go back and get your money!! Go get it.

Did you also know that by completing two contracts with the same company back to back you can tell the company you want an open contract!! That's right, no more year to year; you can decide when you want to end the contract.

Here is the link in English and Chinese for the Chinese labor laws, read it, educate yourself:

http://www.chinahrd.net/hr_jlr/grzy/gr_jt.asp?id=14170&PageID=23

Article 44, Article 46, Article 47, Article 50

[Voldermort]

I can confirm that the above provided link is infact a translated version of the legal document, which can be found here: http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2007-06/29/content_667720.htm

How this relates to us FT's I'm not sure. Perhaps somebody here with a 'contact' could do a little asking. I was with my previous school for 4 years so If this is true I would have a nice little bonus to look forward to.

[englishgibson]

i don't mean to be skeptic or anythin' but this is china and so your chances of gettin'some extra bonus are as thin as the chinese coffee in their coffee shops aroun'

a contract with clauses against some ambiguous written law of some dioptric pinhole glasses man in a smoky room makes it almost impossible to follow up to..and a local law vs central gov law is yet another soap opera designed to work for some that offer the opportunities rather than for those that accept them

never mind the actual translation or meaning of what a contract is to a chinese individual. imagine 20 years back, and what a piece of paper with some agreement meant then.

cheers and beers to the local writers of laws rules regulations and the ones that work so hard to enforce them on the 5,000 years old full of rules and regulations land

[AlexB]

Granted that's what the labour law says. Yet if anyone wants a copy of my Masters thesis into why the labour law is going to be as useless as the 1994 labour law.....then feel free to ask - I've 12,000 words on why its a load of bollocks, perhaps a little much for a blog post.

But yes, there are lots of good things in the law - open ended contracts a requirement for the 3rd contract (or 10 years service), severance payments, increasingly difficult to dismiss workers without cause (and good renumeration if it happens), easy for workers to terminate contracts (just 30 days notice - and those contract break penalties are illegal too). Loads of good stuff for us. Yes it includes foreign workers too.

But will it be enforced? Ha! By who? Us? Ha! Your employers? The ACFTU? Government officials? Ah, I'm giggling like a school girl at the thought.

Welcome to China

[AlexB]

[Jayray]

There may be a law. There may be many laws. They may be recognized laws. If nobody will enforce them, what good are they?

[dragon777]

Laws are great...Tongji! However, as others have commented, if nobody

will enforce them...they are worth Jack...

[nobleignoramus]

A lot of hot air for an unworthy cause! There is not going to be any success for anyone here in demanding what's not been put in precise terms in their contract. No government stipulation will override your contract.

The OP seems to be applying a false logic. The regulations he has dug up apply to Chinese people. The regulation according to which people are entitled to a limitless contract once they have fulfilled two one-year contracts was introduced in China ca. 2 years ago, and it specifically targeted CHINESE migrants.

I know it would be desirable to be put on an equal footing but that is a pipe dream. Anyway, none of us are slaves in the proper sense of the word, are we?

Don't raise your hopes unrealistically high and try to get the desired results through confrontation!

[vikuk]

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

An inappropriate posting insulting another member has been deleted. The member doing the insulting has been warned and the thread is now locked.

Causing threads to be locked or deleted has been known to result in a permanent ban from this board.