Ask Headmaster Ken

Ni Hao Ken,

I'd really just like some advice and I really love MKL so I figured I'd post this and see what you say - also I'd like to get the word out about companies like this so OTHER foreigners don't fall victim to these terrible "schools."

I'm an American who just finished working for a "Private Education Center" in Qujing, Yunnan China. This was the absolute worst experience that my wife and I have ever had in our lives, especially in China. In my honest opinion, the managers of this particular business are racist against foreigners. We are not the first foreigners to complain about this company (though we didn't find out about this until after we ran into problems ourselves).

First, the contract they had us sign contains MANY clauses and appendices that go directly against Chinese law. They tried to impose a "non-compete clause" against us to which we told them was impossible (we're merely teachers and hold no trade secrets) and that we did not agree to this portion of our contract. Additionally, this "contract" is not the official contract that is issued by the Chinese government, it is a severely edited/revised copy of that contract. Throughout the year, they would charge us for services and repairs without showing us receipts or giving us reasons (they charged us 2,800RMB in Feb for electricity overuse in January - we were on vacation in January).

They rarely paid on time and hardly ever paid us what was promised. They constantly skimmed money out of our salary and when we confronted them, they threatened to "have us in court" if we didn't drop it. We worked many more classes than was defined in the "contract" and were treated with MUCH disrespect. They have lied to authorities and even tried to bribe authorities when we confronted them about issues.

The biggest problem we are having currently is that we want to work for a different school in the same city. Our "contract" has a "non-compete clause" which they claim states that we can not work for any other school that is in direct competition with them for the next 3 years! We have consulted lawyers and know that this is false and will not stand up in court - we even went so far as to have these lawyers confront this company.

Additionally, the school we wish to work for is NOT in direct competition with our former employers. Our contract (fake and illegal as it may be) states that our working duties are finished as of August 30th 2010, but that we may wish to stay in China to travel until October 9th and they can help us with the proper documents to allow us to stay/travel in China.

When they mentioned this LAST YEAR I could smell the BS all over it and told them we wouldn't sign it. They told us, "This is just to help you, so you won't get deported if you want to travel" and we signed. They are now using this to suggest that our contract is not over until October 9th. Since our contract actually states that it is over on August 30th, we have moved over to the new location as of Aug 31st.

They are now complaining to the foreign affairs department that we left without fulfilling our contract - they claimed we "ran away" even though they paid us in full on the last day, told us farewell and that we are done.

This company's name is [name deleted per blacklist posting policy] and, as stated above, we are not the first foreigners that have had trouble with this business. We have contacted former teachers for the past 5 years and all of them can testify to the wrongdoings of this terrible company. We, collectively, would like to see this company removed from Qujing, or at least their permit to hire foreigners revoked.

So:

What should i do to get their license to hire foreigners revoked?

and

What should I do about working for this new university? Our residency permit expires soon and our former employers refused to sign any Recommendation Letter or the Release form so now the new university can't issue us a letter of invitation.

What we know:

*Our teaching contract with our old employer is over.
*The non-compete clause doesn't apply to us.
*Our former employers are claiming we ran away and didn't finish our duties (they're lying).

Any advice?

We had no idea about any problems before we came and chalked up the poor grammar and sketchy "contract" to fact that "this is China" and we simply didn't KNOW the rules and regulations. Now, however, we are very informed on Chinese law and are suspicious about how much of the past year of our life was really "legal."

Can this terrible company legally do anything to us or are they just blowing smoke?!

Hello LuTianHu,

First, I'd suggest you drop any notion of having your current employer's license revoked. It is just not a realistic outcome to expect. You need to resolve your current situation before entertaining any notion of retribution. After careful consideration, I suspect you''l determine it just isn't worth the time, bother and money.

One course of action is to have your new employer go with you to the PSB and insist that your current employer provide you the REQUIRED letter of release/recommendation. However, your new employer is probably fully aware of your current employer's practices and may simply process your hire without it.

I can't provide you with legal advice as to the "contract" you signed. But I can tell you how I'd handle it, I'd cheerfully ignore any and all threats.

Yeah, I have gone back and forth for the past 2 months, debating on whether it's really worth it to try and get their license revoked. Usually I get really adamant about it right after they try and pull another stunt - one of which happened shortly before I wrote the original post.

More info:

Our new employer has already gone ahead with the hire process and has already gone to the PSB with me and demanded the paperwork - nothing happened.

The pickle we're in now is that our residency permit is days from expiring and it looks like we're going to have to head back over to America, RE-APPLY for a NEW Z-Visa to enter the country and apply for a new Foreign Expert Certificate and Residency Permit. Our new job has already begun and we'd miss a LOT of classes to do this crazy globe trot and that's what our new employer is trying to avoid.

Also, apologies for posting the name - I didn't see the post about blacklisting before, but I understand the reason to remove the name. My local friends just think it's funny because this company has a terrible reputation for being ... well .. crappy, and their initials would be WC - haha.

Thanks for the reassurance to just ignore the threats. We've been doing that for around 7 months now and it's getting old. There are VERY FEW foreigners in this city and none of them can relate because they all work for our new employer - so to have them tell us "just ignore it, everything will work out" doesn't seem too reassuring.

I really hope that people read these Q&As before they consider applying for a job in China and I wish that my terrible year working for a terrible company can at LEAST save other people from going through the same thing.

Xie Xie,

Tian Hu

LuTianHu wrote:I really hope that people read these Q&As before they consider applying for a job in China and I wish that my terrible year working for a terrible company can at LEAST save other people from going through the same thing.

As you and others have learned the hard way, the best cure in regard to unscrupulous schools and recruiters in China is prevention.

If you had been fortunate enough to have found and applied our employment checklist, I don't think you would have ever signed on with these people.

Best of luck with your new position.