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Manuel Geere
Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 28 Location: Lost in the mists of time
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Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:05 pm Post subject: QP and Griffith |
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I have no brief for either QP or Griffith (I worked for one and not for the other), but I think that the speculations/rumours spread by Lolaerd ought to be taken with a pinch of salt. We all love a drama, but the idea that a University would deliberately withhold money, resulting in teachers being denied pay, strikes me as a little far-fetched. Bottom feeder school, visa mill, sue-grabit-and-run ok, but an Australian University with a reputation to uphold?
We all know how murky the Gulf can be, but we do not know the true story in this kind of sad situation. We can only sympathise with the unfortunate teachers who are stuck in an impossible situation, waiting and hoping for a resolution to their non-payment of salaries.
A few facts (citations? as an academic essay would demand) might be more appropriate than the usual rumours and gossip that seem to circulate as fact online. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 11:29 am Post subject: Re: QP and Griffith |
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Manuel Geere wrote: |
I have no brief for either QP or Griffith (I worked for one and not for the other), but I think that the speculations/rumours spread by Lolaerd ought to be taken with a pinch of salt. We all love a drama, but the idea that a University would deliberately withhold money, resulting in teachers being denied pay, strikes me as a little far-fetched. Bottom feeder school, visa mill, sue-grabit-and-run ok, but an Australian University with a reputation to uphold?
We all know how murky the Gulf can be, but we do not know the true story in this kind of sad situation. We can only sympathise with the unfortunate teachers who are stuck in an impossible situation, waiting and hoping for a resolution to their non-payment of salaries.
A few facts (citations? as an academic essay would demand) might be more appropriate than the usual rumours and gossip that seem to circulate as fact online. |
Yes. indeedy we need to sympathise with these unlucky teachers.
Some facts:
1. Some years ago QP contracted Griffith in Oz to recruit teachers and help manage its contract teaching program.
2. Griffith subcontracted a local outfit, IMTIAZ, to manage the Qatar office.
3. Both IMTIAZ and Griffith recruited teachers who were basically responsible to IMTIAZ as the local office.
4. IMTIAZ employed office staff to help with local operations.
5. QP changed management, a local man was put in charge of the teaching center.
6. Unhappy with the contract teacher system, he decided to clean up operations. The new guy also informed Griffith he did not want them to continue the contract with IMTIAZ when it expired. It is not clear whether he has agreed to let Griffith be the main contracting organization or not. Nobody has had a straight answer about this. Teachers have written to Griffith and have not had a reply.
7. IMTIAZ as the local representative of Griffith got stuck with the clearn up.
8. The previous arrangement was that funds were put into the IMTIAZ account by Griffith. This arrangement ended when IMTIAZ was outed by QP for whatever reasons.
9. IMTIAZ had to get rid of as many contract teachers as possible while QP disposed of a couple of direct hires (including old Perce the Rock).
10. When IMTIAZ was canceled as the local subcontractor by QP, there were no more funds.
11. Griffith apparently does not hold a local bank account and under the arrangement with IMTIAZ is supposed to pay up.
12. Griffith has not paid IMTIAZ any funds since June or July as there is some sort of dispute going on. Griffith owes IMTIAZ money which QP finance department has said has already been paid out to Griffith. IMTIAZ has been told to get their money from Griffith as QP has paid up what is owed. (This sounds true as it is unlike QP not to honor debts which is why I wrote previously it was a rather incredible thing to happen.
At the time nobody really knew what was what and thought QP had not paid IMTIAZ. In fact, QP is contracted to pay Griffith who in turn is obliged to pay their subcontractors, IMTIAZ. There have been no monies paid since June.
13. IMTIAZ is now in a bad way as they need the money owed them by Griffith (QP says it has paid what it owes and it is Griffith's responsibility to pay their subcontractor as the arrangement is between QP and Griffith and the subarrangement is between Griffith and IMTIAZ.
14. IMTIAZ is short of funds and last month sent all contract teachers an email telling them they culd only pay them 2,000 QR a month until the dispute with Griffith is settled (and this may take a long time).
So teachers have had to make do with that.
15. IMTIAZ did not have enough money to pay the rent for contract teachers living in rented housing. They apparently own a building in Musherib which has vacant apartments due to the exodus of teachers last summer. The teachers were shifted with one or two days notice from the building where IMTUIAZ had rented appartments to the property in their name. The apartments are dark and very small.
16. IMTIAZ had to send another email to contract teachers to tell them that as Griffith had not paid them, they had no money to pay the contract teachers.
17. IMTIAZ was forced out of desperation to terminate all contract teachers. Their contract with Griffith finishes next month. It is unclear whether QP will retain their contract with Griffith.
18. IMTIAZ and GRIFFITH are locked in dispute and it appears as though IMTIAZ has hired a lawyer to try to fix this mess.
19. There has been some talk (by an HR person) that there may be a new organization hired to deal with contract teachers, the name mentioned was Salam. It is not clear if this is the Salam Group which is a major retail business in Qatar and the Gulf. They have a lot of portfolios so maybe education is one of them. It could also be another organization and not the retail one. This was not explained by the HR person.
20. There is some possibility that some of the contract teachers may be rehired by the new subcontractor but this has not been confirmed.
21. About ten teachers contracted either by Griffith or IMTIAZ are leaving soon. The others are taking a wait and see approach to see if the new management group (Salam????) will keep them on or get rid of them.
Teachers come from these groups:
Direct Hires (DH) contracted directly by QP and under their jurisdiction. This includes some of the moderators and materials writers.
CONTRACT TEACHERS
1.Griffith recruits from Oz or elsewhere
2. MTIAZ hires who were authorized by Griffith to hire teachers
3. Malachy leftovers (not too many) from the days when Malachy was contracted by QP to manage the contract teachers.
I myself along with Wilber and a handful of others had been Malachy leftovers. There are only a few left. I quit some time back to take a more lucrative job with another organization.
I am no rumor-monger. I am just reporting the facts as I have heard them from a contract teacher. If anyone has anything more to add, it would be a good idea.
The last three groups are the ones in trouble |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Manuel Geere
Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 28 Location: Lost in the mists of time
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:06 pm Post subject: QP facts |
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For someone who left QP some time ago for more lucrative employment, you seem to have a lot of inside information on who exactly said what in QP Finance Department, IMTIAZ and Griffith. It looks like you have the contacts to make a killing out of insider information. Any tips for the Qatar Exchange? |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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When teachers were told they were only going to get 2,000 QR a month, naturally they went to HR and Finance to try to find out what was going on!!! Of course they complained, and of course QP told them the issue was between Griffith and IMTIAZ and they were out of it. All I know is what one of the teacher-victims has told me - he was one of the people who asked questions and the answers were disturbing.
Did you think they were all going to just accept the situation and say nothing??? Naturally they wanted to find out what was going on so some of them went and asked questions. Some have written to Griffith (the Griffith hires) but da nada. Griffith has not replied to any emails my friend sent, and apparently has not answered the emails of other angry, worried and desperate teachers.
What are these people supposed to do? Griffith as the main recruiter owes these people an explanation and some sort of compensation. They'll find out in court. I wouldn't be surprised if they pull out of QP altogether after this fiasco. All they need to do is reimburse their local contractor IMTIAZ. QP no longer deals directly with IMTIAZ and is only waiting for the end of the contractual agreement via Griffith to end next month.
While IMTIAZ made a lot of mistakes, they weren't as bad as some administrators. A. Z. was a dipstick but he wasn't the worst manager I've come across. We've all heard worse stories about the man who runs the QU English program thanks to the Garvey's gang. (Now defunct of course as they no longer have a booze licence and hence no people in their cups moaning and groaning.) That guy out at QF sounds pretty bad too. At least we weren't harassed, belittled, spied on or hassled by IMTIAZ. The worst behaved were some of the other teachers but for the most part, the people I worked with were OK.
The IMTIAZ office staff are also out and victims of this. Griffith has earned a lot of money from this program and paid the teachers a lot less than they charged QP for each person. Allegedly and I say allegedly, this is only what someone was told by QP (one of the fired teachers last summer) Griffith was not a hands-on administrator, they left everything to their subcontractor IMTIAZ. Griffith was paid 30,000 per teacher per month: the teachers earned about 11,000 plus apartment plus transport. If this is actually the correct amount, then they made a tidy profit. Write to Griffith yourself and see if you get a response. |
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washingtonpost
Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 61
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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Now we all know why IMTIAZ was in such a hurry to terminate as many of us as possible. I was really pi--ed at the time but in retrospect I was one of the lucky ones to get thrown out last summer.
What a mess!!! Griffith, as a lot of people suspected, seems to have been just in it for the money -no interest in the contract teachers or the program!
Gulag friends, I feel for you. Come to the UAE. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:22 am Post subject: |
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Griffith has a lot to answer for in causing a lot of hardship and misery for its Qatar staff.
Griffith is the one who has caused the problems for the IMTIAZ teachers. In order to avoid Oz taxation laws, they did not open a bank account in Qatar. The arrangement apparently was that QP would put money into the IMTIAZ account. However, IMTIAZ no longer is involved with QP so QP didn't pay them but had to pay Griffith. Griffith didn't want to send the money back to Qatar as they would have to pay tax on money sent out of the country. A big mess which is in the process of being resolved.
Teachers who were contracted by IMTIAZ for Griffith/QP have one more month. The building they now live in is an IMTIAZ property and since their contract with QP is almost over (in Jan) they are no longer under any obligation to house the people they hired. IMTIAZ people have one month left and that's it. Then they have to leav IMTIAZ accomodation.
Some teachers have applied for direct hire. Some are hoping the new contract company (Salam???) will keep them on. Either way they have to vacate the property owned by IMTIAZ as IMTIAZ needs to put the property on the rental market to recoup some of their losses.
Apparently some of the teachers have had to pull their kids out of school as they had no money to pay school fees. (Only DH staff get paid school fees.) These people are at their wits end, about to lose their jobs, about to be tossed out of their acomodation (for some the second time within two months) and waiting for their salaries. There has been some financial restitution (apparently thanks to the efforts of some humanitiarian minded guy at QP who was pretty furious at Griffith for doing this to the IMTIAZ teachers) but they are still owed money. A miserable situation.
Nobody knows how many teachers will be rerecruited by this new agency but apparently they all have to reapply even though they are now teaching QP students. What a major mess!! Everyone who was fired last summer are now thanking their lucky stars they weren't subject to this deplorable treatment. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:53 pm Post subject: |
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Disorganization reigns!!!
Apparently, IMTIAZ is going to run the contract program a little longer because QP hasn't found a replacement subcontractor. Interestingly, IMTIAZ is going into a new sideline in Events Management. I hope they are luckier with this than with QP. The Musherib residences are apparently going up for sale in order to help IMTIAZ recoup their investment. They bought the building to house the contract teachers, little dreaming they'd end up with a bank loan to repay, unpaid funds and canceled contract. So there's been a temporary reprieve but this doesn't help the teachers more than a couple of months. If they are lucky, the new subcontractor will keep them on. This makes sound business sense because otherwise the new subcontractor will have to shell out money for recruitment, benefits etc and at the current salary, it is dubious if they are going to find too many teachers willing to come.
No further news about Salam taking over. Maybe that is still under negotiation? It appears that this is the retail group after all. They are in retail big time with stores and businesses all over the Gulf. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:13 am Post subject: |
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Griiffith is out. The mismanagent of the contract teachers and misappropriation of funds has lost them their contract. They have no more credibility in Qatar. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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Griffith got off scot free in this whole affair. They should be ashamed of the way they treated the contract teachers. Some of them were left homeless and almost penniless. It's hard to believe this is supposed to be a reputable university. It makes you wonder whatever happened to ethics and standards. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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Griffith has blamed it all on QP. |
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wilberforce
Joined: 27 Dec 2008 Posts: 647
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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2010 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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IMTIAZ was bad but not as bad as Lang Sols say one of the Gulag survivors I still hear from. Good job I got kicked out when I did. It worked for me. Now I am properly qualified with a marketable M.A. |
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lollaerd
Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 337
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Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 11:23 am Post subject: |
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Well Wilbur, it worked out for you fine in the end but not for a lot of those poor guys, especially the Sudanese. I am sorry, they were good people, and not a mafia like some people liked to insinuate.
The Griffith Grope as it's been called was a resounding success for Griffith. They pulled in piles of money. No guilt about what happened to their contract teachers. They deserve to be blackballed. |
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idaho_potato
Joined: 09 Feb 2012 Posts: 57
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Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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wilberforce wrote: |
IMTIAZ was bad but not as bad as Lang Sols say one of the Gulag survivors I still hear from. Good job I got kicked out when I did. It worked for me. Now I am properly qualified with a marketable M.A. |
LangSols turned out to be a fairly okay employer but Malarky Mal who used to work for Imtiaz managed to get back into QP's good books with his new operation Edgewater. I am amazed he always comes out on top! |
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idaho_potato
Joined: 09 Feb 2012 Posts: 57
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:16 am Post subject: |
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Malarky Mal put all the Lang Sols teachers in a bad way. Their contracts had been renewed a few months ago but Malarky had already negotiated with QP for a takeover. Lang Sols was out of the picture and renewed staff conracts, not knowing they they were on their way out. Outsourcing is not the way to go to have a consistent and high quality language program if the subcontractors are always being changed.
This is a repetition of the Imtiaz/Griffith fiasco of a few years ago, fewer people affected but disgusting even so. No respect for people. Remember teachers are always a commodity and that's how organizations like QP and QU regard them. It's called planned obsolesence. Get rid of people and bring in newbies. The problem is bringing in newbies is not always a good thing as you may bring in weirdies and kooks as has been known to happen - despite screening processes there are always several goofs who get offered a job. I wonder how many weirdies Malarky Mal has found. He was certainly good at hiring them. These wacko jackos certainly made life at the Gulag very stimulating. |
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