Raoul's China Saloon (V5.0) Beta
The Bar Room => The Bar (ON-TOPIC) => Topic started by: babala on May 25, 2007, 07:37:45 PM
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I'm posting this for one of our new members (Nakeshia). She hasn't had the time to post this so I said I would do it for her. She has been at the same private school in China for 5 years now but recently she has been having numerous problems. I'll start by saying that until recently I would say the school is average. I worked there myself when I first came to China. It's wasn't the best but there are schools way worse. Here's the present situation.
They have been paid late 3 times since February. The travel bonus they were supposed to receive before Spring Festival came 6 weeks late and their pay was about a week late. They were also paid late in April (not sure about how late on this one). They were due to be paid before the May holiday and they were not. This caused a few teachers to have to cancel travel plans. After 10 days, they still had yet to be paid. My friend and 3 other teachers refused to teach until they got paid. I would also like to add that the Chinese teachers hadn't been paid in 3 months and the school was constantly crying poor. Fourteen days later and still no pay, one of the teachers went to the Nanjing PSB with documentation that the school hadn't paid them. The PSB called the school and a day later the teachers were paid.
The man at the PSB told the teacher that he and 3 other teachers should not have stopped teaching. In the teacher's contract, it says that for every class a teacher misses, they will be fined 200 RMB. The school is very angry that the teachers went to the PSB so now there is worry that they won't receive their full pay for May.
What I want to know is does a school have the right to enforce the penalty when they themselves were in breach of the that contract at the time?
The other problem is that the rumour is that the school is closing down after this semester. Her contract is a 12 month one and if the school shuts down, there goes her summer income. She is job searching now but everyone is looking for someone to start in September. She has been going around to the international schools (she has her Masters in Education) but the other problem is that they don't offer free tutition for her daughter (that's the reason she hasn't just picked up and left already, her daughter goes to school there). She's really going through a hard time right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Bottom line:
Chinese schools have the right to do anything that their relatives and close friends in the PSB will support them in. Trying legal means to settle such a dispute here is, at least in the short run, dangerous and futile.
My advice: under NO circumstances let yourself be bullied into going back to work. Collect whatever can be gotten now, if anything, pack all your belongings, and hire a taxi to take you to another town with a train station. Don't hang around trying to collect money you're probably going to get cheated out of anyway. Get as far away as you can as fast as you can...get out of that police jurisdiction. THEN you can get SAFEA, your Consulate, etc. involved. Go to the media, too. Send info here and we'll do our part to spread the word.
If she got nowhere to go, there are usually lots of sofas in Suzhou.
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I am aware of this situation, i have good friends out at that school. It seems the school is on the brink of pleading bankruptcy, even though the land has been recently been sold to the government.
From what i know i echo Raoul's sentiments, get out of there as quickly as you can. PSB are no help, start looking for another job, most international schools will include tutition, if not for free then for a reduced rate.
Get out, get safe then try to recover what has been lost.
Good luck to all involved.
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I agree the best action would be to get out but there is the problem of her daughter. She is 7 years old and attends the school. I told Nakeshia that there is no way the school will pay the summer wages and that airfare and medical allowance can be kissed good-bye. She has been job searching between teaching but as I said, schools are looking for Septmeber. She is hoping to find a school that will let her move in right now and then she can do summer camps. Bugs, I find many international schools won't pay for the child's tutition and even at a discount, the price is huge.
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Babs, she's potentially facing much worse problems than her daughter missing a few weeks of school. The advice to scram is as much for the daughter's sake as it is for the Mom's...maybe more.
This is not the typical decision about moving. Get out while the getting is still good.
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cut the losses short!!! really!
It's been my experience that in China, when things start going south too much, there is almost NEVER a hope to rectify and normalize situations.
If I were her, I'd stay there but start preparing myself for the eventuality that the school will in all likelyhood not pay summer salary.
Also, I'd seriously look into leaving before i'm shown the "closed down" sign.. unless the school can give concrete guarantees that all will be taken care off... even then...
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Good advice. She can't just pack up and head out though. I'm hoping she can find a school soon (I offered her a place at mine but the hours here aren't the best when you have a child). She's compiled stuff for 5 years now and the school guards will stop her if she tries to pull a runner (one backpack, easy to sneak out, an apartment full of stuff, not so easy). The other problem is that before this mess started, she sent home most of her money to pay off her Master's, never expecting the money troubles that lay ahead. I think the school will pay for May and then bail on everyone at the end of June, giving them nothing.
The school guards are always on duty and are watching the staff carefully. How can she get out before her contract is up?
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Is there any way she can mail her smaller treasures and portable resources to a friend (to reduce the amount of her losses)? I realize that big items (TV, etc) would have to be abandoned, but if she could get her "necessaries" out, that might make the move less traumatic.
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We're talking about stuff and money here.
Please...get them out now. It's not worth being held a prisoner of the school. Or worse.
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Good advice from all here. A month, two months of lost schooling for a 7 year old is nothing. I also have a Masters of Education, have taught for 33 years and have been a principal for 10 years. The best advice is that to go, follow Missi's wise advice about getting the FAO's help so that stuff can go out the door. Without the help, just a backpack at a time to a friend outside of the school then head for another city and lean on your friends here at the saloon. As Raoul has said, sofas are available - and in more cities than Suzhou according to the bonds built here. Be safe!
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Any organisation that stuffs around with contracts, renegs etc deserves to wake up and find no teacher there the next day, and a call from SAFEA in the pipeline. They will lose their registration for hiring foreign teachers if they continue with the bad practices.
Luckily the PSB DID intervene this time and they were paid - the school MAY not want that to happen for the next pay, so fingers crossed they pay up.
Tell your friend to document everything, send it to SAFEA now. I would also send a copy of the letter to the school so they know SAFEA has been notified.
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Babs, don't let your friend be complacent here. Clear out!
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Hi
Thanks to all for all your advise and support, I really appreciate it. The developments in the next few days will say alot as to what and when I do what needs to be done. I just pray that I at least get my full months salary at the end of this month. Thx Babala for posting for me and I hope you can understand that I've got so much going on at the moment it's difficult to sit down and put it into words. When things cool down, I look forward to participating more. Thanks again everyone.
-nakeshia
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Hey Nakeshia,
Sorry you've had to deal with all this.
I hope you'll follow the advice to get out of that place.
If ya need places to go, help connecting to better jobs, etc. you got 'em.
You have more friends here than you may realize.
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What he said. Remember, for all the hassle involved in switching jobs or even towns, there's so much work out there, you'll be fine.
And we laowai gotta stick together.
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And we laowai gotta stick together.
Naw, not all the laowai just the waijiao. Most of the businessmen I meet here are real... piyan
Get out as soon as you can. If the the school really has financial problems, there will just be a money grab with very little chance that the teachers (foreign or otherwise) will get their pay. No one will fix a problem here, they will duct tape it up until it explodes.
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Just an update
Nakeshia called me yesterday and no pay yet, normally they would have been paid then. They were told that the money went in yesterday just before 5pm but when they checked, there was nothing. I haven't talked to her today (I have to put money on phone) yet. She had an interview with a school in Suzhou today.
The other piece of news is that is seems the Chinese teachers are starting to bail. Chinese teachers have been seen moving out (never a good sign, it's like watching the canary come up dead out of mine).
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Indeed.
As mentioned elsewhere, Chinese teachers don't have much portability. When THEY start moving on, you know it's getting serious.
Please try to get her out of there...
Where she lookin' in Suzhou? I've been making a lot of rounds and I'm pretty current on many of them. (PM is fine...)
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I'm trying my best to get her out ASAP. She knows she is always welcome at my house and my school but the hours here aren't great when you have a child (ah hell, they are't the best to most). She is trying to find a job at an international school. Not sure of the name of the school she went to today. The interview today was about teaching math.
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Still no pay as of today. My friend is looking around but is keen to get out real soon, she is working part time in my school but doesn't like working weekends so is looking around for something else.
:(:(
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Sorry to hear about your friend's troubles. If she's looking to teach at international schools, has she tried Shanghai American School? I taught there last year, I could help her a bit... I'm now back in Canada but still have friends working there.
(This is off-topic, but now I know TIC actually means This Is Canada! Stupid me, I idealized home while living in China - I thought everything was perfect here!)
http://www.saschina.org/jobs/jobs.asp
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For some reason I haven't seen this thread at all.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, Nakeish. It would be best for you to pack and leave together with your daughter. And even better - to another city.
You can try to find a job in Beijing and Shanghai. At the moment Beijing's Wall Street English is hiring (www.thatsbj.com)
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I talked to Nakeshia this morning. In an intersting turn of events, the Chinese teachers were paid a portion of their salary but the foreign teachers have still not been paid. One FT bailed yesterday. She had a good interview yesterday and she has another interview in Shanghai next week so I have my fingers crossed for her.
fantomette, thanks for the link.
Cheeks, she doesn't want a training centre because of the hours. If she did, I'd take her right away. Her daughter is only 7 so she doesn't want to be out of the house as long as training centres require.
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If she wanted to come up here, we have decent hours plus there are two other young girls, a six year old and a ten year old. They attend the local school and both mothers are sole-parents and their teaching schedules fit in well with school hours, they also share childcare. The families are Russian but the girls are learning English and are really good at Chinese.
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Fantomette,
Thanks for your offer to help. I'm interested in teaching at an International School, although I don't have a teaching certificate, I do have a Masters in Education and have been teaching here for 5 years. Any assistance you can offer will be appreciated.
Update for a teacher in a real mess: No salary as of yet. Word is maybe sometime this week. Don't you just love that word: "maybe"? Keeping our fingers crossed. Had an interview at Suzhou Foreign Language School aka SFLS, if anyone has any information about this school I'd love to hear it.
Hanging in there,
Nakeshia
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Hey just to report, she was paid her full salary yesterday agagagagag
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That's real good news. bfbfbfbfbf Hope she finds something for next year though.
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Excellent - all the best for next year!
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agagagagag Congrats on the pay! Hope all comes straight on the job front, very soon.
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In case of such disputes over pay in time, the PSB (Gong An) is not the right place to go. Contact the Bureau of Foreign Experts in your province instead. They often also have something like an arbitrition (mediating) function in such cases. Also remember it is illegal if the school fines you for having contacted Gong-An. If this happens again (salary nor paid in time or being withheld fore some reasons), please contact Bureau of Foreign Experts immediately. But only do so if you have valid Z visa converted into a residence permit. If you have come on a tourist of F visa, you may face problems with Chinese authorities for illegally working in China. Then, better do notr contact the authorities and leave the school immediately....
I myself had very positive experience with the State Bureau of Foreign Experts when I went there to explain my problems I have had with my previous school. Do not tell school before you do - let them have a certain surprise... a kind of "nice gift" from you. They hopefully will treat you more reasonably next time....smile.