Job Discussion Forums

[zewd]

another classic example of "get it in writing..."

I agreed to take my current job based on the description of terms I was given at the interview (the boss said he did not have a copy of the contract that was translated to English on hand...) Silly me. I have been working for a few weeks now with no contract (since it would not be valid until I get my visa). He recently had me take a look at the contract and here are the terms:

25 hours of teaching per week, PLUS 15 hours of office work, substitutions for other teachers, business travel, recruitment of new students, and "other activities that the employer is entitled to", at no extra pay. He expects a full 40 hours per week from me and wants me to log my hours in the office.

There is also a competition clause that says I am not allowed to take on any private students or work for any other schools while I am employed at this one. I suppose this is fairly common... but the clause goes on to say that I am not allowed to take on any private students or work for another language school for 12 months after I leave this one. I have seen clauses like this in contracts for high-level government and millitary consultants... but for a language teacher??

This is all for a school that pays about the average monthly salary (if not a bit less) for the Czech Republic. I am very suspicious about this.

Have any of you ever worked under, or even seen a contract like this before?

[JimDunlop2]

In many countries, and in many ways, yes. It is common. Doesn't mean it's legal.

In Japan, an employer CANNOT legally dictate what you may or may not do in your spare time, teaching private students included. I suspect that is also the case in many other countries.... Unless of course, teaching privates is illegal where you live.

As for dictating what you may/may not do after you stop working for them? That's completely laughable and unenforceable (not to mention illegal).

[Glenski]

Clauses that tell you what you can and cannot do in your free time are invalid and usually illegal. Those that tell you what you can do after you have left the company are invalid, illegal, and ludicrous.

25 + 15 = 40 hours a week, pretty much standard for any normal job in most countries, I believe. However, that contract certainly needs to pin down precisely what office work means, as well as the overly vague "other activities".

What is "business travel"?
What is recruitment of students? Standing on the street corner and handing out flyers? Does this apply to those 15 hours of office work?

I could go on and on, but I think you realize much of this simply needs clarification if nothing else.

You are also already aware that you are probably working on the edge with no contract and visa. Red flag to me, even way over here in Japan. There are contracts like that occasionally in Japan, but not the norm, I think. Why don't you ask in the Czech related forum?

[dmb]

[zewd]

The 15 hours of additional work were not mentioned in the interview and are not standard in the Czech Republic, or (I think?) most other places in Europe. Every contract I have ever seen and every teacher I have talked to have told me that "full time" teaching in this country means 25 teaching hours plus travel time to and from the clients who take their lessons outside the school, plus lesson planning, grading, etc.

Recruitment of new students means that the school will set up meetings with potential students, and I am supposed to go convince them to come to our school.

I showed the contract to a couple people who have been living in this country for years- they laughed at it and told me to quit. I just wanted to get some outside opinions... thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

[ls650]

[Chris_Crossley]

This business about the competition clause is actually quite common, as a school is afraid that, if you teach students either privately or else at another school in your spare time, those students might not want to come back to your school and instead become either your private students or else go to the other school, especially if either or both of the two options prove to be more cost-effective to them.

Nonetheless, this clause, which I have seen couched in terms of "exclusive dedication to the school", is unenforceable. Who is going to police what you do during your spare time? Is one of your "students" a member of the equivalent of the old GDR Stasi or the Soviet KGB, who monitors your extra-curricular activities and report back to their boss, who is your boss?

It would not surprise me if your boss were so paranoid that he were to do this, yet the fact that he did not even tell you about these extra activities within your contracted working hours would be enough to convince me that he is untrustworthy. He clearly believed that you would have run a mile if you had seen the extra hours demanded of you, and so he conveniently left them out when he interviewed you.

When bosses tell you they don't have copies of contracts, they are brazen liars. Even if a current contract is not available, he should at least have shown you a specimen contract (with blank spaces where the name of the foreign teacher is shown), so you could have seen clearly what the terms and conditions are.

Accepting a contract without having seen all of the terms and conditions - and I mean ALL of them - is a great mistake. I know, from reading your previous posts, that you are an American and thus have, monetarily speaking, more to lose than an EU citizen. You must have come all the way from home to get your TEFL certification and work by plane, and so you would be expected to have to wait for any flight reimbursement until after you have fulfilled all the terms and conditions in your contract.

If I had come from the UK, I would probably have done it cheaper and come by bus! Since the Czech Republic is in the EU, it is far easier for an EU citizen to get a job in any of the 25 EU countries, so that movement of labour is much, much easier. It also means that you could tell your boss to stick his job and go somewhere else.

When I came back to China in December 2003 after 8 weeks in the UK, I went originally to a school in Shanghai, which had agreed to reimburse me my flight ticket after finishing my contract. However, 18 days after I arrived, the school and I parted company, and I went back to Wuhan, where I had been for 2 years, since I had a then-pregnant wife there. The next school I went to actually agreed to refund my flight fare after the end of my one-year contract there, even if I had had nothing to do with the school when I first bought the ticket. And, indeed, I did get my money back (plus a little more, owing to a more favourable exchange rate!).

If you find that the boss is deceiving you in some way, that indicates that he is exploiting you. I would say that this kind of behaviour is disrespectful and intolerable. If I were you, I would try and find another job and, during any interview or conversation, try and negotiate exactly what you are expected to do. Ask to see contracts - if, again, they don't want to show them to you, don't work for them. Language schools must be opening up all over the eastern European bit of the EU, not to mention Russia, so there must be plenty of places where you could work without feeling that you have to stick it out at a place whose boss surprises you with things you did not know about merely because you committed the cardinal sin of agreeing to work for somebody without a contract or even knowing what exactly the terms and conditions are, because this kind of situation means that the boss can ride roughshod over you and then, without any warning, you are shown the door and you are out on the streets.

Remember: Contracts are supposed to afford you some kind of protection, and you are very vulnerable, indeed, without one, especially in your case, zewd, as you are not a citizen of an EU country. You may have to do some proverbial arm-twisting in order to get that precious contract from your boss, but, if he insists on stalling, I say look for another job while you still have a job - before he turns nasty and uses all kinds of BS to justify his actions, including the possibility of summary dismissal for the flimsiest of reasons. Bosses do that, if it serves their own purposes.

[dmb]

The competition clause is fairly common amongst private language schools here in Istanbul. Alot teachers move from one to school to another. I gave up checking references of teachers at rival schools along time ago. The reason being the owner would always slag off the teacher and say how terrible they were. The reason? The owner knows the teacher was good and popular with the students, so he is frightened that if the teacher moves the students will follow. So less cash for him/her.

Of course has any teacher found him/herself in trouble for changing schools? Have they been persued by the former employer.? as far as I know never.

[PAULH]