Job Discussion Forums

[roseannanna]

So I have just returned from Hong Kong after living their for a month.Within a month I have worked for two companies and have had my contracts terminated due to my dyslexia letting me down.

My first experience was with Dramatic English.After two weeks they told me I was not fit to be a teacher and should consider another career or work in an adult language center. I have over a years experience working as a Teaching assistant in a British state school.They either didn't like me or had took on too many staff.

So I am looking for new jobs in Hong Kong and then I get an email from the manager of Mini Minds.I was quite reluctant to take the job seeing as I had no experience working with tiny children and the pay seemed to good to be true at 22500 HKD per month.The manager was overly friendly and was keen to take me on.She told me they would never terminate my contract (yeah right).

So on the contract it also states that you can't have a sick day in your first 3 months.On Monday I came into work throwing up with Gastroenteritis and my boss wouldn't let me go home. Surely in a environment working with young children and working in a city in Hong Kong this isn't right?

So on Thursday the boss tells me to come in early and to bring my visa documents and contract as apparently there was a missing form.

She takes the documents off me and the contract and tells me she is laying me off due to my marking and spelling errors.When I mean marking I mean 5 second marking!

So maybe Hong Kong was not the city for me to work in but these language centres work in strange ways.I have been told working in the international schools is the better option for anyone wanting to work out there!

[glasvegas03]

Hi rose, just want to let you know that a lot of these 'tutorial centres' are pretty dodgy, (in the sense they don't tell you a lot of the underlying small print) and yes, if you have gastroenteritis it would NOT be advised for you to go and teach young kids. You should have had the day off at least.

After working for 2 tutorial centres (the first one i was with, i was working 5.5 days, well over 40 hours with a full day of teaching on saturday) for 13500HK dollars a month. So you actually got a very good salary offer for the centre, but these centres all have the same purpose - to get as much money as possible from the parents. There is no 'teaching', more like babysitting. I'm currently still looking for a job, I'm not keen on working in a tuturial centre ever again to be honest. Right now, im a 'standby' teacher where I only get called in if a teacher is sick/doesnt turn up. The rates are 180HK an hour, which isnt that great. I suggest you look at other places like EnglishForAsia. Im not sure about international schools, but i hear it's pretty competitive to get in, you would need some local teaching expereince in a proper school (from what i heard from a friend)

[roseannanna]

[sistercream]

It's true that many language centres are more than slightly dodgy, and truly just out to part as many parents from as much cash as possible.

It is also true that many people have been conned by starting work without having an employment visa in their passport, and these people have no legal redress when they get shafted. If an employer isn't interested in keeping on the right side of government regulations, they certainly won't be interested in treating their workers well...

Roseannanna, did you already have a visa with Dramatic English? I ask, because most employers who had gone to the trouble of getting an employment visa would not let go a worker so easily/ quickly (unless there had indeed been major complaints from students).
Having started the second job so quickly, there is obviously no way MiniMinds already had your visa processed (and no way to know if they had even started the process), so I am afraid you were working illegally.

As to "no sick leave within the first 3 months", this is - AFAIK - unenforceable under HK labour law; worst case scenario would be to have unpaid sick leave (even with a doctor's certificate) during a probationary period.

International schools cannot get visas for teaching assistants (there are enough qualified people here on PR or dependents' visas); to get a teaching position in one of these schools you need to be fully qualified, with at least a couple of years relevant experience, and normally registered in a jurisdiction which uses the same (or closely related) curriculum.

[roseannanna]