Job Discussion Forums

[Patawon]

There is a problem with the school that we are working with. There are three of us from Canada, we have been in China for three months and we are new to this.
Our boss has been cheating and screwing around with us and and now he has gone too far. He refuses to pay us our full salary for the month of December. We told him that we refuse to work until we get our pay. Is there anything that can be done about this? Is there a place that we can call to help us out? The police maybe? Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
If anyone is offered a position at Global IELTS School in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China DO NOT TAKE IT. STAY AWAY!

[Teatime of Soul]

Are you a legal or illegal worker?

By legal, I mean you were mailed an invitation letter, you secured a Z visa before entering China, and then you received a Foreign Experts card and a Foreign Residence Permit sticker in your passport.

I ask this as it makes a difference as to what advice might be given.

[Kibbs]

Business English Solutions International offers this kind of service. Its not a published service but I know one of the agents who handles these types of issues. You can email [email protected] His name is Keith and he will listen to your issues and let you know right away all of the risks involved with arbitration, and if they can help or not. They do not charge anything for this service, but they typically will ask for a voluntary donation if you are satistfied with the their work .

Another service is ESLJudge, but i think keith works with them too so you might as well go straight at it.

Just make sure you explain all of the breaches of the contract.

Wish you all luck

cheers

[Ms Bean]

Kibbs,

Can you give us some more information on these two so others can check them out and then perhaps convince the mods to make this a sticky?

This sounds like a good thing.

[China.Pete]

"He refuses to pay us our full salary for the month of December. We told him that we refuse to work until we get our pay. Is there anything that can be done about this?" -- Patawon

If you are legal, as defined by Teatime, your local Foreign Experts Bureau can probably make them pay you, in full and on time. This will result in a significant loss of face for your leader, however, and you might want to have something else available when your contracts come up for renewal. Your bluff in regards to not working can also be effective, and, strangely enough, is sometimes more readily forgiven by the employer than any official action. If you are not a legal worker, the latter course of action, or some variation thereon, is really your only course of action -- that, and of course finding a new employer.

[evaforsure]

Regardless of the visa you came to china on, you should have in your procession a foreign workers permit or a Foreign expert Book and a resident permit. Even then it will come down to your contract and all arbitration is subject to acceptance from all parties. The department of Labor is the end all for this kind of game and you can submit a request for arbitration to them if all else fails with out the expense of a lawyer, but to be honest, legal or less than legal, what ever that means, to get a little money out of a tight wad is a extremely hard act to accomplish and even if a court agrees with you , there is a matter of collection. You can always try SAFEA, and if no results, go on to the Labor department but stopping work is a good justification for him to withdraw your employment and start a process that will make it hard for you to continue to work in china, although it has been known to wrk