Employment & Professional Development

http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/paid-holidays.htm

Hi,

After reading the above, I'm a little unclear as to what the norm is today for a contract at a Chinese university with regards to paid holidays. Could you please make clear what paid holidays you are entitled to if you have signed a year contract at a university? Do you get paid 11 months of your basic salary, ten months basic salary, or the full 12 months?

I look forward to your response as I'm currently trying to resolve a dispute where I should be paid my salary during the month of February and I cannot find any justifiable reason why my employer would choose not to pay it.

Thanks.

The most common or standard term of employment for foreign teachers at Chinese universities is a 10-month contract that includes payment of salary during all Chinese holidays (and whenever else classes are cancelled or rescheduled).

Foreign experts who are deemed extremely desirable and/or hard to replace will typically be able to negotiate 12-month contracts in which they will be paid a full salary during the winter and summer breaks.

However, you will need to examine your SAFEA contract addendum very carefully to determine what the exact terms are of your employment. If it is silent on the issue of payment for the Spring Festival, then, yes, you should be paid for February.

Having just written this, I knew of one foreign teacher working at a university in Haikou who not only does not receive salary during the winter break, he is actually required to pay rent for his apartment! I always wondered why he would ever agree to that.

Check your contract addendum. The answers to your questions are in that document.

Thanks for your response, however there are a few things I want to further clarify with you.

1. Shouldn't a typical academic year in China start from September and finish in July along with holiday periods in August and February?

If a contract has been signed for a period of one year, then shouldn't this be 12 months rather than 10? As far as I've seen, most institutions advertise for a year contract so then therefore they should pay 12 months, right?

2. If, however, I sign a 10-month contract, then shouldn't their resident permit also be 10 months?

3. If a contract has been signed for a period of a year but a teacher only gets paid for 10 months, doesn't that mean their salary will be worth almost the same or less than a local teacher over a year period?

4. Shouldn't this link, paragraph 7, from a SAFEA document be conclusive enough to explain the situation?:

VII. COMPENSATION FOR FOREIGN CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL EXPERTS (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS FOREIGN EXPERTS) ON SUCH EXPENSES AS TRANSPORTATION, LODGING, HEALTH SERVICE, AND HOLIDAYS (6) (675)

I think being paid in summer and winter vacation should be normal as local teachers also get paid in that period.

Before I address your specific questions, it is far more important, I think, that I first address the apparent mindset with which you are approaching this current conflict with your employer.

You are seeking to establish what is "normal," "standard," "common," or "a matter of law" in order to have some leverage with your employer. This approach is rarely effective in China.

You will notice that we have virtually no copies of full text legal documents on this site. That is because we know that these documents do NOT adequately inform what foreign experts can expect in China. They look impressive and they are usually dumped indiscriminately on websites to give the site an air of authority but, in reality, they are virtually useless (except, perhaps, for building resentment and anger). The link you embedded is to a website written by anonymous authors (which is why we removed it) and the interpretation that precedes paragraph 7 is approximately eight years old.

Years ago, university contracts used to be set at one year (12 months). Then again, the typical workload also used to be 12 to 14 periods. About four to five years ago, universities, in order to save money, started issuing 10-month contracts, meaning foreign teachers were on contract for 10 months and were paid a salary for 10 months.

As I indicated in my first reply, these terms are negotiable. That is, if the university wants you badly enough, you can negotiate a 12-month contract and salary.

The duration of one's residency permit is yoked to the contract. That is, if you are under contract for 10 months, then typically the duration of your residency permit is usually 10 to 11 months. In some provinces, it is becoming common practice for the FAOs to apply for 11-month residency permits on 12-month contracts because they can save a lot of money.

Instead of trying to establish "what should be," why don't we deal with what is? Specifically, what does your contract addendum say about vacation pay for February?

Again, the answers to your questions are in your contract addendum: not in what should be, what is common, what we as Westerners think is normal, or—least of all—what the SAFEA advises or the letter of the law stipulates.

PS. Based on the fact that you didn't make any specific references to your contract addendum, I am assuming that you were cheated this time around. My best advice is this: Instead of making yourself sick over what should be or what is true for others, use this as a learning experience to find a much better paying job, one where you will be valued and treated fairly and with respect.

Remember, you need both a letter of release and recommendation from these people in order to move on.

Thanks for the advice