Job Discussion Forums

[Gawain]

EFL veterans in China, what do you think? I am responding to above Sticky "Contract Questions." Excellent Sticky. I was shocked by the State Admin Foreign Experts Affairs standard contract. It was intolerable. I am trying to get a contract in Shanghai. I taught 3 years in Taipei Taiwan at good schools without any SAFEA nonsense.

SAFEA contract posted by "TW" in above sticky says if you quit, you owe up to US$2,000. Elsewhere it specifies US$1,000. Insane. Many EFL teachers don't even have that much in life savings, since these SAFEA contracts pay only RMB3,500 (about US$450/month).

Contract says school reserves right to fire you if they don't like you, but if you quit, you owe them US$1,000. I think school could legally steal it from you since they set up your local bank account. They hold your life savings hostage? That is slavery. And what a BAD teacher you would be if you are forced to work against your will. Students deserve better. FORCING teachers to stay on jobs they hate is a really bad idea.

A more reasonable Quit clause: If you quit, school will not pay for your return airline ticket. That ticket can be expensive, but that would be a reasonable clause.

Contract says if you get flu and call in sick, you MUST get a doctor's note. Any EFL veteran can tell you that your students will give you many colds and flus. You need rest in bed to recover from flu, not spend all day on a bus to some clinic across town.

Contract says teacher must be available for office work, testing, prep, without mentioning hours or pay. School expects you to work all day unpaid? By comparison, below that contract is post by "ERINYES" which is much more reasonable. Sorry to see it is not a real Chinese contract but ERINYES own suggested contract.

Veterans, is it really that bad? How much negotiation power you have? I would want to rewrite contract until it looks like ERINYES suggested contract- and remove Quit Penalty!

[Malsol]

[jester]

Mytroll is right. Nothing you can do about that contract. Very few things are negotiable - most of us just trust our good luck. Legal or not, very few here has had any positive results in trying to enforce a clause in the contract. Come join in the fun and games.

[7969]

the contract isnt that bad. the breach penalty for example, is only there in the event you break the contract early for no good reason. most people who do that dont bother telling the school they're leaving before doing so, thus there's payment. and the breach penalty goes both ways, but i dont know of anyone who's collected from a school in the event of invoking it.

you can negotiate some things with your school if the contract isnt to your liking. every place i've worked at has been more or less agreeable to some requests.

its not all doom and gloom. and if you dont like it, there are 200 other countries to go to.

[kev7161]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most any RESPONSIBLE teacher need not worry about these standard contracts. I rarely get sick enough that I can't teach. In fact, I've only recently used a sick day and I really wasn't all that sick, but my school didn't have a problem with it.

Penalty fee? Why would I worry about a penalty fee? I tried to choose my school as carefully as possible so little chance of me breaking my contract. Even a worse school like I worked last year wasn't so bad that I couldn't tough it out until the end of the contract.

If you do your research BEFORE taking a job, ask all the right questions, have some specific clauses put into your contract that better explains some of these standard features (you can have them do that in your contract's addendum), and save all those emails you are sure to have (you know, when you ask the 30 or 40 questions that's going to put your mind at ease), then you probably won't have too many obstacles to overcome during the length of your contract.

Sure, there are instances that will occur even after you've taken all of these precautions, but it seems like many of us have similar complaints such as canceled classes with no notice or our apartment's kitchen sink is backed up and nobody's been around for THREE DAYS to fix it and so on. Annoyances to be sure, but not worth quitting over or going into contracted legal battles.

[Gawain]

Thanks 7969. Naive question: What is SAFEA contract for? Government schools? Universities? Kids? Adults? Private Buxibans? Surely it can't apply to every type of language school throughout China? Is it only for "SAFEA" schools?

Salary stated in SAFEA contract as RMB 3,500/month is way too low. Most schools in Shanghai pay twice or triple that now. If pay is much lower than most schools offer experienced teachers, then schools probably offer much better contracts for experienced teachers?

Re Quit Penalty, not my intention to do a Midnight Run, but look at Taiwan: The bus ride from home to my first school turned out to take hours. Luckily I did not sign contract with them. Second school lacked authority to hire FT so no contract either. I did sign contract and get Taiwan ARC card with my third school. Contract was very reasonable. No Quit Penalty. See it takes quitting a few schools before you find one that works for you.

This SAFEA contract is kind of sucker contract only a newbie desperado would take in Taiwan. What am I missing here?

[jester]

The Safea contract does not, as far as I know, stipulates the salary. That is to be negotiated and filled in/out on the contract itself.

[Gawain]

Thanks. I'm getting this info from China Job Forum Sticky "Contract Questions":
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=30916

Halfway down page, "TW" in October 2005 published a blank standard SAFEA contract. In Appendix it said pay is RMB 3,500 (as of Oct 2005, low pay even back then). And Quit Penalty US$500-2,000

Re above responses, thanks. Still, there are all kinds of legitimate reasons to quit a school mid-term. Excellent reasons to quit: School turns out to be fraudulent, pays late, acts abusive, is run by y-ren gangsters. No reason to be chained to such a nightmare purely through fear of them legally stealing most of your money. That is precisely why many teachers are forced to do Midnight Runs.

Is SAFEA the "official" contract for all language schools in China? Or is it a government chain school? Or is it only suggested, and better schools offer much better contracts to experienced teachers?

[Malsol]

[KarenB]

The SAFEA contract is basically a guideline for schools to use as they write their own contract. Few schools put all that stuff in their own contract (for instance, the SAFEA contract says the school should pay roundtrip air fare, and most schools only pay one-way after one year of teaching). Each school determines the salary amount. Usually, the government schools and universities in one area pay about the same salary -- for instance, in Hainan Province, which is a "poorer" province, the usual salary is between 3300 to 4000 yuan. Some of the private schools will pay higher salaries, but usually (not always) require more work in return. Of course, cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai, etc. pay much, much higher salaries -- but the cost of living is a bit higher.

Kev 7161 is right. A responsible teacher who does his homework before signing a contract probably doesn't have much to worry about. One of the best ways to find out about a school is to ask the prospective school for the email of one or two of it's current FTs -- then email them and find out the real scoop.

1) Breach clause -- in my first university (6 years ago), a fellow teacher left, basically because she couldn't deal with the culture shock and had a lot of emotional problems. She informed the school about 1 month before she left, and completed the first semester. The school did not charge her the breach amount, and in fact, they did still pay 1/2 of her return airfare.

There's been 2 teachers who have left my present school (one because the school was criticizing him for his immoral behavior; the other because he wanted to leave 2 months early for personal reasons). They both just ducked out in the middle of the night (the 2nd one tried to negotiate an early leave with the administration, but they wanted him to stay for at least one more month). They didn't pay the breech amount (which our school probably wouldn't have charged them anyway).

If your teaching situation is really intolerable, most likely the school is breaking the contract in some fashion. This give you a legal "out." In fact, just about every school breaks the contract at some point in time (such as paying salary late on occasion), but most of us ignore it if the general conditions are goodl. But you can use it for bargaining power if need be.

2) School reserves right to fire you. This situation is very, very rare. It takes a lot of time and trouble to hire a FT and go through all the visa stuff, and most schools will put up with a lot of crap from the FT so they don't have to bother finding another teacher. However, I did hear about a kindergarten in Haikou that was in the habit of hiring FTs, and then, when their contract period was close to expiration, they would "fire" the teacher for a bunch of trumped-up charges, thus relieving themselves of the duty to pay airfare, and even having the gall to charge the FT the breach contract amount. Well, the first teacher involved in this actually paid the amount, but the 2nd teacher decided to stick up for her rights, and took the issue to the Hainan Dept. of Foreign Affairs for mediation (this is a right that all FTs in China have, though few realize it). Well, she won her case, the the government forced the school to pay her airfare and salary and all.

3) Sick/doctor's note -- most campuses have a doctor or nurse right on campus -- the universities will have a small hospital, and the smaller schools have a clinic. You can go there for free medicine, and doctor care (that's in the SAFEA contract). When I've been really sick, I usually ask the FAO to take me to the clinic (or, in the case of my burst appendix, they took me to the hospital). No school I've taught in required the doctor's note. However, I've rarely had to miss a class. My school has never required me to do make-up classes, although some schools will. When my appendix burst, I had to be in hospital for 10 days, and then off teaching for about 2 more weeks, so missed a lot of class. My school paid the entire hospital bill (although the contract said I was responsible for the board) and paid my entire salary for the month I didn't work.

4) Extra work. Most "extra work" at a college or university involves judging speech contests and the like about 2 times a semester, a couple of culture lectures each semester, and going to English corner once a week -- that sort of thing -- not a lot of work. Maybe 1 or 2 extra hours a week at the most. (this is one of the things you'd want to clarify before you come -- when you email a current FT at the school). However, some of the private schools require teachers to keep "office hours" -- they have to stay in the office from 8 a.m. to about 4 p.m., whenever they don't have classes. What they do in the office is their business (if you peak in the usual Chinese office, you'll see them playing computer games or reading newspapers on company time). Personally, I would never work in a school that required office hours unless they paid extra for that time.
At my school the "extra work" is spelled out in the contract -- organize a Christmas program for the school and assist with speech contests. You can have this sort of thing spelled out in the contract, if you wish. My school attaches an "addendum" to the basic government contract (I work for a government school) with some specific things spelled out that I have requested -- for instance, if I teach a writing class, my teaching hours are reduced to compensate for grading time.

[7969]

some good info here. as noted, the SAFEA contract is just a guideline. its not ironclad. anyone who thinks the guidlines are unfair and wants to have them changed is going to have an awful tough (impossible?) battle ahead of them.

[Gawain]

KARENB THANKS for a wonderful, splendid, awesome post! This is just what I was hoping to hear. Thanks very much for all responses, especially MALSOL and KARENB!!!

Thanks also to TW's publishing the standard SAFEA contract in the "CONTRACT" sticky!!! This thread will prevent many nasty surprises when I sign in Shanghai. Now I am confident if I shop around Shanghai I will find a good contract at good pay (I mean relatively good for China)....

Sure you should act professionally. Don't constantly call in sick or do a Midnight Run. But if problems do arise, it is comforting to know schools may be REASONABLE and HUMANE as KARENB described above.

If I had gone on an L visa and tried to sign contract in Shanghai, and was given this standard SAFEA contract, I would have freaked and screamed and broke furniture and spewed my guts all over the director's desk. My hobby is LOSING FACE!

Great thread! Allow me to hijack my thread! Any more veteran advice on contracts? Can you demand PAID LESSON PREP TIME? How about PAID TEST GRADING TIME?

[jester]

First time Mytroll said something to agree to. Well done!
Your master.
Jester

[KarenB]

Paid lesson prep time -- this is calculated into teaching time. I've never heard of anyone getting paid extra for it. Actually, most teachers in China don't spend a lot of time on prep. YOu usually have a textbook to use, and if you're an experienced teacher, you probably can prepare for a class in an hour or less. At my school, I only have to do one prep a week, as I just teach the same lesson to different classes of students. HOwever, at the first university I had to do quite a bit of prep as I was teaching different grade levels of students, and also teaching courses like European Culture, and also teaching the teachers.

Paid test grading time. No, no one gets paid extra for this either. Mostly, because if you teach oral English, you're doing interviews or speeches or something for the "test" and you're grading while you're sitting right there in class.

You can ask for extra pay (or more likely a reduced class load) if you teach Writing Classes (as I do) because of all the time grading essays and all. I get paid full=time to teach 10 hours a week (of WRiting) at my present school. At my previous university, a 2 hour Writing class counted as 4 hours of "teaching time", and a 2 hour "content" course (History, European Culture, Teaching Methodology, etc.) counted as 3 hours.

[nolefan]

KarenB,

those were some of the most useful and insightful posts I have seen on these forums in a long time.

cheers