Job Discussion Forums

[SeaLawyer]

I personally know more than 50 FEs and none of them have.
Of my six contracts, only one even went to paper lawfully.
That one was breached on day one.

[jg]

Both of my contracts were lawfully executed, but then so was my ex-wife...

[SeaLawyer]

None of my ex-wives have been executed.
I Love Them, All of Them.

[nolefan]

My wife and I have had a good run of luck so far with our school/contract

[danielb]

Please explain executed lawfully.

[Roger]

"Lawfully executed" by whomn?
Of 5 mainland public school contracts, I can report that
- 2 were fulfilled in toto;
- 2 were fulfilled in part;
- 1 was entirely bogus.

The partially-fulfilled ones reneged on small items; pay was withheld vicariously, placing an unfair onus on me to prolve this or to prove that.
Interestingly, one of those who fulfilled their duties to me was a school that dismissed me; the dismissal was unfair but they paid all their dues.
The bogus employer was a college owned by a city that didn't follow the rules of hiring foreign nationals and shafted me in various ways that lead to economic losses, so that I finally decided to walk out.

That's the relatively "good" news. The bad news is that I have had numerous part-time jobs, and frankly speaking, I have yet to meet someone who means what they are saying.
Here, my most recurrent griefs have been:
- Sudden timetable changes or cancellatiions, with economic losses as
a direct consequence;
- cancellations made without them being communicated to you, so that
you turn up in vain, wasting your own time; no apology received!
- One guy inveigled me to move house to an estate "because it is so much
more convenient to work and live on the premises within walking distance
to your classroom"; when I lived there (in Lotus No. 2 Village in Shenzhen), I had far fewer classes than was absolutely necessary to keep me going. I decamped within 2 months.
- A lot of part-time employers simply put you on their list of teachers on
stand-by, and you wait in vain. When they do need you it always is
on extremely short notice. YOu feel sort of misused as a cheap stand-in.
- One employer tried to short-change me, but I prevailed by going to
his hierarc hical superior. I did lose some money thewre (Shenzhen
City Libary Training Centre), but not much.

So, on the whole, I must say people thathonour contracts are far and few in between. To the 2 public schools mentiioned above I can add a couple of private training centres; one of them I worked for several years, while the other was my employer for one year and a few months into a second one-yhear contract; he made a serious mistake of his own by sending me to work elsewhere illegally, and I was found out by the PSB. The small tragedy that ensued ended in him paying a fine and firing me, but not without paying all his dues to me.

[Chris_Crossley]

It is important to know exactly where a foreign teacher stands whenever he or she has a contract, even a sample one, to look at. Hence, the right sort of questions should be asked. If a school is reluctant to answer probing questions or even refuses to answer them altogether by not even responding, the school is unworthy of any more consideration and the contract should be binned, whether physically or virtually.

Below is a link to a message I have posted in the Newbie Forum about what kinds of questions to ask if ever one is presented with a "sample contract" that is so short and hopelessly vague, as well as one that omits lots of things that teachers should be asking questions about.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=180385&highlight=#180385

I hope that people find it useful, although I am not claiming that is a complete list of questions. It will, of course, vary from contract to contract.

[danielb]

I thought 'lawfully executed' meant lawfully signed.

[joe greene]

in America: "executing" a contract refers to performance

in China (and elsewhere): "executing" a contract refers to formation

I could be wrong, but I thought China borrowed the term from the U.K. If this is true, then we've caught Roger showing a preference for American word usage.