Job Discussion Forums

[MESL]

The trend now is to not pay foreign teachers for August and February. The excuse is that your contract is a 10 month contract, that you don't teach those 2 months, or whatever.

Your salary is in the school budget and that budget includes 12 paychecks a year for every teacher in that school, Chinese and foreign alike. In some cases, those 2 paychecks go to the recruiter as his finder's fee. In other cases, the FAO and the financial officer split it.

Auditors look for evidence that administrators are stealing 6 plus digits from the Chinese government, not evidence that they are stealing 2 months salary from foreign employees. Even if auditors inspect the foreign affairs office books, bank transfers and cash receipts can easily be faked. Auditors certainly aren't going to knock on doors in the foreign teachers dorm and ask, "Are you getting paid 12 months a year?"

And how are you as a foreigner going to inspect those books? Everything is written in Chinese. Any translator you bring along is likely a school employee and won't risk their job for you. Even if you brought in an outside translator, do they have a degree in accounting?

If you ask to see the books, you'll be told they are school property and not available to you. Even if they show you the books, you'll be shown the fake version.

If American schools announced, "We are not going to pay you 2 months out of the year because you are Chinese," Chinese people would be outraged. But if it happens to foreigners in China, no one raises an eyebrow.

The solution is for everyone to stop taking jobs that don't include 12 months pay. Because if people keep signing, next year, you'll be paying all document fees, then the year after, it'll be your flight ticket, then they'll be charging you rent to live on campus...

[choudoufu]

blah, blah, blah.........another poster full of himself. haven't determined yet
whether you're another STFU puppet, or just applying for the slot.

the trend? the trend is to pay 10 months salary for 10 months work.
we do, typically, sign 10 month working contracts, with winter (spring break)
vacation normally paid at public schools.

summer is not normally paid, especially if you're only working a single
10-month contract. if you re-sign, you "should" get summer pay, but
that's on you. it's up to you to negotiate. if you're not able, too bad.

how are you going to inspect the books? you aren't, silly. you have no
right. you're just an employee. an employee who signed a contract.
an employee who (hopefully) is paid according to the contract. c'mon, bro,
if you sign a contract that excludes summer pay, then what right do you
have to "demand" more pay?

methinks you been sippin' too much onion kool-aid!

[NoBillyNO]

[Bud Powell]

MESL,

I'm so glad that you frequent this forum to keep ME up to date on what's going on behind the scenes of MY school. It's reassuring to hear from an expert that when I go to my FAO to ask to see the payroll books that I'll be shown something that is written in Chinese. I'd never have suspected that. (I'd never have suspected that I'd even been allowed to see the payroll reports at all). Worse, my girlfriend is really an employee of the Ministry of National Security who, at best, will lie to me and possibly slip poison into my warm water on a hot day. (I know that she doesn't work for my school. She stays at our apartment almost all day long fooling around with strange electronics. I always wondered about that. Now I know. I always wondered about the probing pillow talk every night too).

Thanks for reminding me that my ten-month contract doesn't include pay for August.

I must have been a fool to believe that I was paid for February. I must have been hallucinating. I'm REALLY on a nine-month contract.

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

You say that the solution is for FTs to quit accepting jobs that don't pay for twelve months. I say that we should go all the way. Forget amendments to contracts and sick-outs and mini strikes.

EVERY FT SHOULD LEAVE CHINA NOW! THAT WOULD FIX THEIR WAGONS ! THEY WON'T HAVE US TRICKY FTs TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE!

WHERE'S MY TICKET HOME?

I CAN HEAR THE STAMPEDE NOW!

MESL, if you visit the forum and find no one here, you know what happened. You provided the impetus for all of us to finally do something about being exploited all these years. Thank you so much. You are truly an angel!

[MESL]

When they start making you pay document fees, someone on this board will put a spin on it and mock you if object. When they cut your flight from two way to one way, someone on this board will put a dunce cap on you if you for raising the alarm. When they start charging you to live on campus, someone on this board will ridicule you for not viewing this as perfectly reasonable. You failed to deal with the reality of the world, you failed to adapt to the culture, etc. Back when Korea was much more shark infested than it is now, hakwon owners were notorious for cheating foreign teachers, but the spin doctors would thump the foreigners on the head. They are worldly wise and you deserve everything that happens to you. If someone sells your wife into prostitution, sells your children into slavery, hijacks your car, raids your bank account, and frames you for a felony, well, the spin doctors will tell you that you brought it on yourself and any assertions to the contrary are all the more evidence that you're clueless. These type of people have always been around and always will be. There's no engaging them. That's just their MO.

[doogsville]

MESL, where is your evidence for all of this? People might actually start to take you seriously if you had any, instead of this constant stream of conjecture and supposition. Many of your posts tell us how things in the west compare with China. So let me tell you this. In the west you need evidence to back up claims like yours. If you don't have it, you'll find yourself in court. Your agenda is so obvious it's painful to watch. No one agrees with you, and yet you persist. No one is buying what your trying to sell. I wouldn't mind so much if your posts were funny, or engaging, or even made any kind of sense some of the time, but they don't. Perhaps it's time to find a board where no one has any real experience of living and working in China, they might just believe what you assert.

I suspect you won't though. To quote the last sentence in your above post ' These type of people have always been around and always will be. There's no engaging them. That's just their MO.'

[MESL]

[Markness]

Yeah, I thought I was getting the screws put to me, but apparently it's not always the way (that you get paid during breaks). I will likely work during my summer break because I like money. The bright-side of this is that if I was able to work like this all the time I think i'd make a ton of cash. Kindergarten privates/adult classes pay quite a nice penny here in the du' ....

Cheers!

Mark

[MESL]

Chinese teachers don't teach in February and August. They get paid 12 months a year. Foreign teachers used to get paid 12 months a year.

[Markness]

[NoBillyNO]

I sign a years contract, money and money only..... no perks ... just cash.. then divide it into 12 payments and give my Uni. "pay-into" bank acct. to the bean counters.

[LarssonCrew]

But in Universities, for instance, foreign teacher's might get 12 months, shitty on site housing no one wants, and are locked into working low hours for low pay.

Then it's illegal to do outside work, so you're stuck on 6,000 a month, legally.

Now Chinese teachers, they get 'hooks' for other jobs through their university, get student's to clean houses, their offices, do work, tutoring, teaching etc. for free, get huge kick backs, get huge bonuses , constantly get free stuff, free trips etc.

Why is it teaching jobs are so sought after for Chinese here in China? Because they REALLY care about the quality of education? No. Because after 4-5 years they can milk that cow dry.

[Bud Powell]