Job Discussion Forums

[beachguy69]

If your school is holding your contract over your head you can laugh at them. Why? Because you are an illegal worker and the court and tax office does not know you are here. Therefore you are not legally bonded to this paper
1) They do not pay taxes on you.
2) They do do pay into the pension fund for you.
3) You do not have a work permit.
4) Under the new law you can not stay here for more then 180 days.
5) The contract is worthless to you and them.
6) If they try to use it against you, just tell them you will take it down to the tax office to see if it is legal.
7) They will suddenly be very nice to YOU.

[mforehand1965]

If your school is holding your contract over your head you can laugh at them. (I'm not sure who you are working for, however, many contracts for ESL in Ukraine are quite legal; i've worked here 3 years and never seen anybody have the "contract held over their head and I work at a fairly large school)

Why? Because you are an illegal worker and the court and tax office does not know you are here. (This is just false unfortunately. Many schools have tax numbers for their teachers, pay the required 37% for taxes (2.5 of which is for pension and in fact have work permits for teachers)

Therefore you are not legally bonded to this paper

1) They do not pay taxes on you. (please see above)
2) They do do pay into the pension fund for you. (also see above)
3) You do not have a work permit. [color=red](Again, that is a matter of status. If your employer says come in on a visit VISA you need to beware of that problem. If they want you to get a single entry and provide a copy of the work permit to get the VISA then you are fine. If they want you to get a multiple entry visa, see below.
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4) Under the new law you can not stay here for more then 180 days. (This is not true if you have a work permit or if you are a freelance worker with the documents and have a stamp from the local OVIR. Plenty of employer provide this.
5) The contract is worthless to you and them. (I assume th e writer refers to his current teaching situation, there are schools operating legally, they usually provide the items i discuss above.)
6) If they try to use it against you, just tell them you will take it down to the tax office to see if it is legal.
7) They will suddenly be very nice to YOU. (This is irresponsible advice to anyone coming to Ukraine. The tax authority is an equal opportunity abuser. If you walk in there and don't have the write stamp, OVIR, Work Permit, Business Visit you are just as likely to have serious problems yourself. In addition, if you have all of the above, you are fine.)

It sounds to me that this person seems to have an issue with his employer. What I do know is that there are several very good schools that treat natives quite well, and there are about 50 mushroom schools. It is important to know the terrain and the law. To review, if they tell you get a visit VISA and they will take care of it, run... single entry with work permit, good, multiple entry and freelance, good provided that your employer can get you OVIR stamp.

Yes, the situation is very difficult for everyone right now. There are only so many legitimate legal schools with legal counsel and the resources to do the right thing. The rules change every day. [/quote]

[beachguy69]

You are in Kiev and that may be true. But for most of the other cities in Ukraine I am right. If you get out of the big city and open your eyes you will see things different.
I have been here for over two years in many cities.

[mforehand1965]

I'll just respond to your childishness this one time and then be done. I do live in a city containing 10% of the population of the country. However, I have been to plenty of other cities and know for a fact that there are plenty of schools doing exactly as i described. your lack of research and bad decision making is not a reason for you to take the approach you are taking. MOD EDIT