Job Discussion Forums

[thetada]

Hello,

Is this an appropriate place to publicise scoundrelly behaviour? And if it isn't where is? And if it is where else can I?

I'll limit the length of the following tirade a) in case it's inappropriate here and b) because my complaints are common. But I don't think that means I should put up with them or not publicise them.

Essentially, anyone who takes a job with Beijing International Studies University (BISU), AKA Er Wai, AKA Beijing Di Er Wai Guo Yu Xue Yuan, AKA Beijing Second Foreign Languages University can expect endless strife with the foreign affairs department.

A key complaint amongst this academic year's 30 or so foreign staff is that virtually no one is allowed to stay in our apartments. Only "direct family", which, apparently, means spouses, grandparents, parents or children. My sisters can't stay here, for example. It should be noted that virtually all of the above mentioned foreign staff are leaving because of various grievances.

Also, they're trying to get out of buying me a return air ticket. I've worked a year, as the contract stipulates. As I was already in China when the contract began I planned to use my return air fare at the end of my contract as I will continue to work in Beijing but not at BISU. They're trying to say I can't. Hilariously, they're trying to say what's written in the contract supports them. It doesn't. Less hilariously, this contractual inaccuracy is unlikely to afford me any protection or recompense.

I'll stop there. Apologies if this is the wrong place to post things of this nature. To reiterate my point, I would be grateful for any advice on where to publish this advice.

thanks

thetada

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Is that it? This is TEFL ... it all sounds rather like a storm in a tea cup ...

[thetada]

maybe so but I can hardly be accused of over-egging the pudding and it costs nothing to share.

[kev7161]

I know that hindsight is 20/20, but yet another post about airfare will teach all us other FTs a lesson: Clarify the airfare situation at the beginning of your negotiations and before you sign the contract! Make sure it is spelled out in writing in that there contract. If need be, write it yourself (in plain and simple English) and ask them (if they agree) to insert it in the appendix.

Not meaning to rag on the OP, but my guess is that this school has been an unpleasant place to be for the last several months and you and the other FTs have complained incessently about this and that and now the school is fed up, thus the withholding of airfare/plane ticket. Am I close on this? I don't know what advice to tell you other than a one-way ticket home may run around 5000 rmb. If you're not planning on going home, find a summer camp to work to make that money back and Clarify the airfare situation at the beginning of your negotiations and before you sign the contract! - - at your next school. Good luck!

[tw]

[clark.w.griswald]

I am with the others on this. Thanks for bringing your concerns here, but I don't see anything terribly untoward about the schools actions - dependant ofcourse on the contract.

[latefordinner]

Well thetada, it looks like you've found a place to discuss your situation. Maybe not the place, there are others, but certainly a place. People are reacting, as they will, with differing outlooks and interests.
Perhaps in your ernest desire to be brief and not tax people's patience you neglected to offer sufficient information. That is reasonable, but when people don't know much they tend to fill in what they don't know with ungrounded assumptions and prejudices. Consider Kev's opinion:

[asianbizarre]

Seems like many of the 'old China hands' are advising contractual clarity. So please do so...
If I were thinking that I'd probably NOT be going home at the end of a contact I was signing up to a year in advance, but wanted the airfare payout as compensation for coming to China initially to take the job (as many recruiters imply in their postings), what should I do? How should this be worded?
Furthermore, what IF the FAO said that they didn't want to rewrite the actual contract, but that it would be a private understanding between us that the $$ would be forthcoming at the end of the contract?
Another point, if I may: What about a contract that includes the promise of a 'holiday payout' at the end of the contact--will this be paid ONLY if I re-sign for the next term--even if this is NOT explicitly stipulated in the contract?
Any other miscellaneous contract advice--in terms of potential ambiguous sticking points--that any of you have come across? What I am particularly wary of is hours that one might be expected to spend sitting in the faculty room that are unpaid 'non-teaching' hours.

[tw]

[thetada]

Thanks to all for your advice, as I mentioned in the original post my complaints are common and as such must certainly be tedious to revisit. That said, as a former reporter I'm only too aware of the over-zealousness with which people in the middle of their own personal problems trumpet their own righteousness and I hope I don't appear as such to the forum dwellers here. It was suggested that all of the foreign teachers here may have annoyed the administration and as such we're now paying the price. I'm not going to deny some of my colleagues have been less patient than others. For my own part, I haven't made trouble or complained. My teaching, though suffering from the problems inherent to inexperience, has been responsible and my teaching colleagues have intimated to me that they'll miss me and that they understand my grievances concerning the foreign affairs department. So that's the background.

The wording of the contract with relation to return tickets is as follows:

(Party A will)
"Provide Party B with one international round trip economy-class plane ticket of the nearest direct route from Beijing to the UK if Party B's working period is at least one year. (With party A's permission, Party B could purchase the ticket of the nearest route by him/herself at Party B's first arrival. Party A shall reimburse Party B the airfare in RMB upon Party B's presentation of the original ticket and the formal invoice from the airline company of the agency)."

The Foreign Affairs Dept is claiming that the section in parentheses means tickets can only be claimed at the beginning of the contract period. It may be the State Administration for Foreign Expert Affairs, which I will visit in the next few days, takes their side. Personally I think it's fair to say the wording is at best ambiguous and at worst, flawed in respect of the meaning they are attempting to draw. Time will tell.

I have heard the idea that Chinese law forbids cohabitation and that it can be considered to exist for our own protection. But I don't need to be protected from my sisters. Furthermore, it seems clear that their incentive for enforcing this rule (because lets be honest, this is a nation where rules are enforced selectively, I haven't seen the anti-spitting laws take much effect yet) is financial, as although, we're told, it's "immoral" for non-married couples to cohabit, friends can rent another apartment in the foreign teachers block, a snip at 200kuai+ a night, after which they are free to roam between the two flats as and when they please. Furthermore, the contract states: "No one else is permitted to live in Party B's apartment without Party A's consent." Some of you are clearly fellow Sinophiles and are probably aware that there's no distinction between the words "live" and "stay" in Chinese. Be that as it may, it seems to me the contract can not be said to give a fair representation of the rules, the many rules we have to follow that we only learn about when we unwittingly try to break them.

My intentions when writing the original text were threefold: vent some anger, seek advice and to provide information I would have found useful when I came to this very forum and others like it a year ago looking for info about the school in question.

My repeated thanks for all your help with this matter.

[kev7161]

With the subtle distinctions in the English language, it's easy for someone who is Chinese that writes the contract have a different idea in their mind than what you might have as you read the same English.

Often, I'll have a guest from another city come to visit for the weekend, a former student or colleague perhaps. As a Chinese, they'll say something like, "Can I come live at your dormitory next week?" Translation: Can I visit your apartment/home next week? So, the way we use live certainly means a longer-term engagement vs. the way an average Chinese person may use the word.

As for this:

Party A shall reimburse Party B the airfare in RMB upon Party B's presentation of the original ticket and the formal invoice from the airline company of the agency)

This is where I would've asked at the beginning what they will do since I already have been in China and don't have a plane ticket or invoice:

1. What will the school do if I don't have a receipt?
(We will buy you a [one-way] ticket home next June)

2. But if I had a receipt for a round trip ticket, you'd reimburse that?
(Yes)

3. What about the price difference between a RT and a 1-Way ticket? Will I be given some sort of cash settlement?
(Yes, we will give you 5000 rmb + a one-way ticket home)

4. What if I choose not to go home next summer, but want to stay here or go to another school? Can I just get a cash payout instead?
(We will then give you XXX rmb in lieu of buying you a plane ticket).

5. Great! Can I get all of this written into the contract so there won't be any problems next June? (No need for that!) Then I'll find work elsewhere / (Yes, we'd be happy to add that in) Great! Let me know when the contract is finished and I'll be happy to sign.

If all of this is done via email, then save those emails - - they may be important later. This is advice, by the way, for future teachers coming to China. We old-hats don't need advice like this, right?

[Roger]

To me it seems unambiguously clear that you are entitled to a payout for your airfare; what's less clear is what the term "round trip" actually means; it could be a mistranslation for "return trip", which they could interpret to mean they only have to pay for your flight from China to London, not a regular ROUND TRIP ticket.

In recent years an increasing number of employers have resorted to doublespeak and sousentendres in their offers: they do it to pocket funds that are allocated to them for the purpose of paying for FTs' return trips. I find this alarming. In the near future we might all be faced with the dilemma: work in CHina for a pittance, and pay for your round trip by yourself...

I have received my airfare dues from every regular employer so far; in one case I asked for, and got, a monthly prorated addition to my salary so as to avoid haggling and squabbling at the contract's end. But you cannot always push this to your employers.

As for the live-in clause in your contract, I am afraid you cannot insist on your interpretation of your contract. You are a guest in their housing, and they retain the right to control who is going to stay with you. In view of thefts and other immoral behaviours they might argue that they do not have the means to vet every visitor to your home - not even your relatives. These relatives might be genuine or not, and who is to protect your Chinese neighbours?
I am not saying I wouldn't trust your sister; but you cannot expect your employer to fully trust your family, can you?
Yes, it sounds sas though you were a sort of minor in the hands of Chinese custodians... to some extent you are!

[dajiang]

get an e-ticket and print out the booking.
cancel the booking afterwards. It looks like a ticket.

[Susie]

I worked at a secondary school attached to a university. The foreign teachers stayed in university accommodation. We were not allowed to have visitors stay in our accommodation units, unless we notified the authorities, got approval and paid RMBXX per night for each visitor (needless to say only certain visitors were approved to stay on campus). The caretaker could and did enter our accommodation regularly even without knocking. (A favourite of our caretaker was to turn on your newly bought bottled water tap and let your water drain away. Why? Because she could, or because foreign teachers of past years had annoyed her I would suppose!) We could have visitors stay in separate rooms in the building or on campus, so perhaps your sister could have hired a room on campus?

About the airfare, I worked at a primary school and didn't get airfare money because I hadn't flown in from abroad and I didn't fly out at the end of the contract, so I didn't have a return ticket to submit as proof of receipt and the school leaders specified that they would only pay flight money to me if I bought a ticket myself, in my own name, flew to my home country and posted them back the used ticket! Suprisingly, the school paid the one other foreign teacher a full month's salary at Christmas time when she went to the USA for two weeks (her grandfather was sick), but I wasn't given any time off at Christmas.

In your case, you could find out if the university will pay flight money upon your showing them a (one-way even) flight ticket here in China before you fly out to your home country, then, try buying a flight ticket from an airline (if you have the money) that will give you a refund when you cancel your booking (even a certain percentage of refund), show the ticket to the university and ask them to pay you the price of the ticket. When you've got the university's flight money, you can cancel your booking and get the refund from the airline. I wouldn't expect the university to give you a roundtrip/return flight price - half a loaf is better than none.

Another possibility could be for you to tell the university that you would like to come back next year, get your flight problem sorted out, and decide later whether or not you actually want to "change your mind" about coming back next year to work at that university!

For future, I would try to negotiate out the "flight scam" and ask for a bonus paid in equal instalments over the last four months of the "year" (is it an academic year or 12 months?), if I didn't stay for the year, the university could take the bonus out of my last salary. Of course, the school/or university might not agree to my negotiations, especially if the leaders are pocketing foreign teachers' flight monies for themselves.

[clarrie]

it strikes me as it does some other posters, that the degree of difficulty in extracting airfares/tickets at contract's end is directly proportionate to
the relationship between the 'two' parties: worked at a school where the director did not want to pay me my return leg airfare because she got wind that I was moving onto a summer school. But what the stupid woman forgot was that she asked me to re-write sections of my contract when I first signed up and when i did that I intentionally noted that at the end of contract a ticket or its RMB equivalent would be handed to the teacher. She tried every way to get out of it - handing over cash was the thing that griped her most! - and it got to the stage where I told her I would gladly change my plans and take a ticket then. I did a net search for prices and came up with a pretty expensive fare and when I put that to her she started to negotiate on the amount of cash she would give me.

The fact of the matter was, I was more than willing to receive the ticket in my hot little hand and tear it up in front of her just to nark her.

'Leaders' don't take intimidation too well, but if you stir their pot a little you've got to expect something in return!

What's the purpose of this? Nothijng in particular, it's just the way things are.