Job Discussion Forums

[sharonariel]

That afternoon, I went to the Labor Bureau, and they scheduled an emergency mediation for Monday, the 10th.

I went to a university to find an interpreter (a 20 year old girl who was not experienced enough to know that it is not her role to offer interpretations). 400RMB for 1.5 hours worth of work, and found from a university. (Oh, the irony that there are so many people all over China studying English and that I called every single translating agency in the city before having to hoof it over to a university to find a person who could speak good enough English to translate.)

At the end of the day, and after 1.5 hours of negotiation, I got the school to agree to a concrete amount of the settlement (16,620RMB, and remember that the first time they didn't want to give a concrete number)-- and that was about 1,625 higher than they anticipated paying the first time around (14,995). Also, I got my letter verifying that I worked for the school on Labor Bureau letterhead. And they agreed to pay me cash at the police station the second that I signed the visa application. It was also at this point that I found out that the Assistant Principal was entrused to be the legal representative of the school, but that that legal representative was apparently someone else. The Assistant Principal had to concede that he had withheld my salary for hours already worked as a punishment for going first to the State Bureau of Foreign Experts and then to the Labor Bureau.

The Assitant Principal, Xilef Il (pseudonym) was VERY angry, and after they had signed the agreement sat in the office cursing me and berating me and saying that I was only in it for the money. (It was never personal. I only do it for the money the same way almost EVERYONE who works does it for the money.) He accused me of having been in jail in the United States (not true) and asked why I couldn't live in America (because there are not enough Asian women there-- true).

So, to make a long story short: The manifest function of the Labor Bureau is NOT to deal with foreign experts, but if the Labor Bureau speaks, the school must listen. And any documents that are signed in front of them are legally binding. One of the problems with the document that was issued by the State Bureau of Foreign Experts was that there was no stamp (1) and it was signed by two different people at two different times (2). When we went to the Labor Bureau, all was signed at the same time and witnessed by a government official. They also clarified that if there is a contract and it is written in both Chinese and English, in the event that there is a discrepancy between the Chinese and English contracts, the CHINESE must prevail. PERIOD.

[Zero]

All that said, I do like Changzhou. It is the "real China" and yet has the advantages of decent size and good proximity to Shanghai, so you won't go lacking for western conveniences. Employers are known to pay pretty low, though.

[therock]

Is this school a real international school that follow an international curriculum or is it one of those local private schools which uses the word "international" in their name?

[jazzprings]

Good luck with getting the settlement fee from the school. However, as a chemistry teacher myself I have to say that you under sold yourself by agreeing to work at this 'international' school; the low pay for a specialist subject should have been a big warning that this school is not good. Good ridance to the school, hopefully your story will help others to avoid a similar situation.