Job Discussion Forums

[ContemporaryDog]

I am currently renewing my contract at my current job. My contract says that teachers get the single fare back with a six month contract and the return fare reimbursed with the full year's contract.

They claim that as I am renewing a one year contract, they will now (With me having completed one year) pay for my single from the UK to China, and at the end of NEXT year they will pay for the single back to the UK.

Is this legal, or are they trying to pull a fast one on me? I am almost certain I should be able to get the equivalent of a return fare EACH year.

Can anyone else comment on this?

[7969]

i guess you could argue it either way. of course, i agree with you and you should have return airfare for both contracts. if it were me, i would try to negotiate it with them, tell them that if you leave, they're going to have to pay the same amount out to someone else anyway. if not, i'd sever ties with them.

[struelle]

[ContemporaryDog]

The thing is, I don't particulary want to go back to the UK, as I will just spend a fortune over there as everything is so expensive. What I DO want is the equivalent of a return air fare now, and again next summer, to spend on travelling in China this summer.

They say they'll pay for me to get a return fare to the UK this summer, but ONLY if I use the money for that. They won't just give me the money to use as I wish.

I'm a bit stuffed though as I signed the contract already before I realised this.

[kev7161]

I had a similar situation as I, too, signed a second year contract. I asked them how they would reimburse me for next year if I didn't have a second RT plane fare (they have already reimbursed me for this year - - maximum 8000rmb). They said they must have a ticket receipt/itinerary to be able to reimburse me fully. Otherwise, the maximum is 5000rmb.

So, I went ahead and decided to fly home in August for 3 weeks and now I will get almost 8000 back next year instead of the 5000. I would have rather stayed in China but, oh well.

[struelle]

[Just a guy]

[Chris_Crossley]

Hi, Contemporary Dog!

I understand your situation completely. Sometimes schools do this when the wording of the contract is deliberately ambiguous or vague. When I first came to my current employer, I was told - and I mean "told" (verbally) - that I would get half my air fare back after 6 months and the rest after my 1 year's contract was over. The wording in the contract simply says that I will be reimbursed "so long as [I stay] as long as one academic year. There are no other preconditions listed on the contract. I was already in the city where I work at the time I approached the school, even if I had had nothing to do with the school when I flew (back) to China in search of a job the previous month.

It may interest you to know that the contract with my previous employer in China was quite specific on this issue. It said that if the employee did not return to his/her home country at the end of one year and indicated that he/she wished to stay another year, he/she would receive a sum of money equivalent to an economy air return ticket in lieu of a ticket if he/she decided not to go. This was exactly what happened when I reached the end of my first year with that employer. In this case, the amount of money was 4,700 RMB. It doesn't sound a lot compared to the money one would have to pay for a return flight from the UK to China, but, as you know, prices are much cheaper in the PRC than they are in any Western country.

If I were you, I would clarify the situation with your school. To me, this is objectionable behaviour on their part. If they said one thing to you before you started working for them and now they are saying another, one must wonder why they are treating someone, who has given one year of his time and effort, like this, especially someone who has apparently indicated a willingness to stay another year.

Are you sure that you have got on well with your employer? Maybe this is a subtle hint that they might not really want to keep you even though they said that they would have you for another year; after all, is a Chinese employer really likely to say "No" to your face if you say you want to stay another year? I would say "not likely".

I can tell you another thing, too. At the end of my first year with my previous employer, the school director's post changed hands. Our working relationship was not really all that harmonious but I managed to get through the whole of my second year. When I indicated to him that I wanted to stay a third year, the only thing he was prepared to offer me was a PART-TIME job, not a full-time job. To me, this was a proverbial slap in the face despite the work I had done for that school, as well as an indication that he really wanted me to leave without saying so directly. I therefore did leave after the end of my second year.

Please clarify what the position is with your school as regards the flight fare reimbursement. If necessary, get something on paper in Chinese as well as English as "evidence". If they are unwilling to do this and/or they are unwilling to change their position, it is clear that they must have some ulterior motive. Denying you something which is rightly yours, especially when it comes to money, is nothing new with Chinese schools, be they in the private or the public sector. The ultimate would be to leave the school at the end of your contract and sue them for the money if you don't intend to go to another country, including your own, though that could be a very time-consuming and stressful experience.

Perhaps what you ought to do is either:
(a) simply go home and then back again. In that way, you'll get your return flight; or
(b) go back home on a single ticket and get a job at another school, who may (or may not) pay your air fare back to China.

It seems to me your school is behaving in a very contemptuous way, and I know exactly how that feels.

Good luck to you, and let me know what happens!

[Ger]

You have renewed your contract, so you have a job lined up for next year. However, things can change very quickly in China, but if you hold your course you should have a job and income and housing, some flight money.

On the other hand, it may be that the school is pulling a fast one, diddling you out of RMB5,000 and putting it into their own pockets. Weigh that in the balance of the strong possibility of a job with that school next year.

Alternatively, the school may not be pulling a fast one, if your contact stated that you get flight reimbursement after a year of working but your academic year is 10 or 11 months, then, you do not qualify for reimbursement.

My understanding of the Chinese meaning of reimbursement is that you buy your flight ticket, you use it, you post it to the school and they send you the money. I think they don't reimburse if you haven't used your ticket, so buying a refundable ticket may not work.

YOu will also need to buy yourself a new ticket from the UK to China for your next academic year 2004/2005 otherwise the school won't pay your flight reimbursement next year because you won't have a used ticket!!

If you want to have a lawyer send them a letter asking the school to pay you the money for the return part of your flight ticket, contact [email protected] but you will probably have to return to the UK this year.

Someone made a point earlier that the school may not really want you to stay but won't tell you directly, this is want Chinese schools do, and it has happened to me, don't take it personally, the schools just want new suckers who don't know how the Chinese will screw them and for the kids to have fresh foreign faces to learn from.

[Chris_Crossley]

I find it strange that if, as Ger suggests, people do not qualify for flight fare reimbursement after a year if the school/academic year lasts only 10 or 11 months, they still sign a contract, anyway. Nobody in their right mind would/should sign a contract if they did not get any reimbursement for flying halfway round the world and staying at their school for a year.

If it were me, I would not sign any such contract at all! Why should I have to pay for my flight back home after one year out of my own salary? I know that teachers receive their fare for the outward journey at the end of a 6-month contract but nothing for the return journey, simply because schools want people to commit to at least 12 months. However, if the contract is only for 10 or 11 months, then I just wonder what such arrangements are for flight fare reimbursement. I know that academic years at public-sector schools never last 12 months.

If Contemporary Dog is teaching at a public-sector institution like a uni or a high school, I would understand if the working "year" lasts only 10 to 10 1/2 months simply because of the long summer break and that such institutions would not pay foreign teachers the equivalent of a full year's salary - I should know, because I'm in that position myself. Nevertheless, such institutions should reimburse people for their return flight ticket if they have completed such an academic year.

It is/should be irrelevant if the teacher decides not to go back to his/her country, though. Generally speaking, if the teacher decides to remain rather than go home, the institutions are/should be still obliged to recompense him/her with:
(a) the equivalent of a return flight from the foreign country to the home country if the teacher wants to stay at the same school; or
(b) the equivalent of a single flight from the foreign country to the home country if the teacher does NOT want to stay at the same school.
Option (b) would mean that the institution would have to pay up, anyway. It cannot use any revelation that the teacher is going to stay in the country as an excuse for not paying him/her the money due. Needless to say, if I were in C.D.'s situation right now, I'd leave. That way, I would get the money and go elsewhere.

Perhaps signing a new contract before this business was sorted out was rather like putting the cart before the horse. Still, coming to, living and working in a foreign country is supposed to be a learning experience, except that many expatriates learn about things the hard way.

[struelle]

[struelle]

[Chris_Crossley]

Maybe a lot of employers in China don't like expatriates voluntarily changing schools even after a contract's terms have been complied with in full by the end of the contract period, yet such attitudes on their part may have something to do with this "face" culture.

If expatriates decide to go elsewhere within the same country immediately (or shortly) after finishing, provided that the separation from their current school is not (going to be) acriminous, the employers may feel that the expatriates believe that their school "isn't good enough for them". As "Struelle" points out, being in China is like being a guest in someone else's "home", in this case, the school. However, even "guests" can decide to change where they "stay", and employers just have to accept that. Hence, some employers show their distaste of expatriates changing where they "stay" in such a manner by trying to use all manner of tactics to weasel out of their obligations to repay airfares after the end of the contract period.

As I said previously, however, the best thing is to have a specific clause or clauses in one's contract, which say(s) that air fare can be reimbursed even if the expatriate teacher decides not to return to his/her home country after the end of the contract, whether immediately or else after a period of travel. Sadly, not everyone is in this position, and, in any case, schools are unlikely to have such a clause in their contracts, because it would otherwise "force" them to hand over money, which they would rather not surrender, if expatriates wanted to go to another school.

As for my current employer, I got a verbal agreement that I would be reimbursed after the end of the 12-month contract - no matter if I returned home or not - before I signed it, and, indeed, it does say in black and white that - and I quote exactly - "[if] the contract period is as long as one academic year, the travelling expenses to our school shall be reimbursed (international economy air ticket for the nearest distance between China and the country of the employed party)". No other pre-condition is in the contract for the reimbursement of the air fare. Hence, if the school were to turn around to me and say that I'm not going to get the money back just because I'm not going to leave China after the end of the contract, that would constitute a contract violation on their part.

I am presently teaching at a public-sector institution. This would mean that I would be perfectly entitled to lodge a complaint with the district education bureau, the city education bureau AND the provincial education bureau - and I'm sure that the school would not want to put itself into an embarrassing situation - if it refuses to honour its obligation to reimburse me after my 12 months are over, according to what it says in the contract.

However, I have (thankfully) hitherto had no personal experience of this kind of situation that Contemporary Dog is in. It will be of interest to see what happens.

[mr pink]

C. Dog,

Your situation is quite simple. Your school is trying to cheat you out of money. Don't accept any of their reasoning or logic. Show them the contract and keep pointing out that it's clear that you should be paid for round trip. I went through the same thing last week. My school denied it was part of my contract until I showed them the contract. Then they said it wasn't a valid contract, took the weekend to decided about it, and finally gave in the following monday.

Why did my school try to cheat me? Because they thought they could do it. That's the way the Chinese admin are. They get used to ordering people around like peasants and they forget that the rule of law/ contract can hold precedent. When the headmaster was signing the invoice, he was so shame faced. He said "You're the big winner now."

I told him I finished a year contract...that's it.

My advice is not to over-complicate the issue by trying to see their side of the picture. To hell with them. Get your money. I would suggest going to a travel agent, getting a quote or reciept to show the value of the round trip flight, and give it to your school. You don't have to actually pay for the flight because it's just booked, you didn't get the ticket.

hope this helps,

m

[mr pink]

Ooops, that last part didn't come out right. I DO think it's interesting to think about why the Chinese try to get out of contractual obligations. The previous posts have some points that I never thought of before. What I meant for C. Dog's purposes, is for him to not accept anything they say. I'm lied to on a daily basis. It's all just BS. Don't validate it. Just stick to what your contract says.