Job Discussion Forums

[Non Sequitur]

Has anyone actual knowledge of the FE Bureau ever taking the FT's side in a dispute with a Chinese employer?
Could be 'off contract' like entering FT's apartment or interfering with mail
OR
'on contract' like excessive breach penalties, late/short payment.
Particularly interested in situations with state/provincial colleges and uni rather than language school situations, where problems just result in still higher turnover of teaching staff.

[johntpartee]

[Teatime of Soul]

Keep in mind, the schools and the FE Bureau have a long term and persistent relationship.

FTs come and go.

Last Mid-Autumn Festival, did you drop off some moon cakes for the FE Bureau staff?

Did you give anything to the FE staff member who had a new baby?

Your school probably did.

Relationships matter.

Not judging anybody or the merits of any complaint, just pointing this out.

[mat chen]

Moon cakes and baby gifts. What it really means is a descrete phone call over a cellular phone where one party agrees to pay the other about 10,000. This is the new way of paying juice here. But a moon cake box would probably be a good way of getting the payment in the right hands.

[Teatime of Soul]

[Lobster]

Those of us who have been here 10 years or more can testify to the amazing changes to the system that have taken place. Oh, wait a minute; things really haven't changed much at all.

Sorry, but i won't be putting much stock in the statements of someone who claims English as their first language but makes errors in simple subject-verb agreement and tense. No native speaker, no matter how many languages they speak, makes such errors. It makes the content suspect as well.

One thing I've learned about China is that change doesn't start in Chongqing. It starts in Beijing or Shanghai. The only thing Chongqing seems to excel at is corruption, and I note that the federal gov't has taken steps to deal with that. It's a beautiful city and one of my faves, but it's not what I'd consider a trendsetter.

I am, however, encouraged to know that people won't be staring at foreigners in Chongqing any more. I hope that pilot initiative is successful!

RED

[choudoufu]

oh, give the poor man a break. 'no staring' was just a typo.
it's a pilot project to install elevators in all school buildings.

[Kurochan]

Hi --

I wrote a complaint letter about being asked to work over my contract hours and sent it to the head of the education bureau in Shenzhen. He actually sent a fax chewing out the headmaster, and I got a reduction in work hours and 900 RMB back pay. However, that was in 2000, when there weren't very many foreigners around -- maybe today foreign teachers are a dime a dozen there now, and they wouldn't do the same thing.

Two things I learned from this -- ALWAYS save name cards people give you, no matter how useless you think the card will be. That's the only way I could write straight to the official. Also, write all sorts of complimentary things about China in the letter, and say that because the country is so great you are surprised about whatever it is you are complaining about. It's good to say something like you are really disappointed, like it is hurting your image of the country, or something like you think because the country is generally so wonderful you are sure your bad situation is just the result of a misunderstanding that could be fixed with a little help from the person you are writing to. It worked for me anyway.

[KarenB]

The was a kindergarten in Haikou, Hainan about 4 years ago that was pulling a scam on it's teachers. Jade (the Headmaster) would give them a contract that included airfare at the end of the contract year, but then, about 3 weeks before the end of the contract year, she would find some pretext to fire them (clothing untidy, or some such thing). That way, she'd get out of paying the airfare. She even bamboozled some teacher into paying her (Jade) money because of breaking the contract (over some minor issue that she'd never complained about during the course of the previous year). She did that to at least one teacher, and then the 2nd one took it to the Foreign experts Dept, who DID side with the FT, and forced Jade to pay the airfare to the teacher.

It couldn't hurt to complain to the Foreign Exp. Dept, especially if you're not planning to return to the school anyway.

[5h09un]

bump.

my school has repeatedly refused to arrange my FEC and residency permit for me. should i contact somebody at the PSB?

[johntpartee]

[Teatime of Soul]

To answer the OP's question, I just heard that a very disreputable employer in a nearby city is having his license revoked by FE Bureau.

It's going to be a involved process apparently but will be done.

Amazing.