TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

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Atlas
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TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Atlas »

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Whether you are a newbie or a veteran TEFL teacher, if you sign the contract that was handed to you without reading it and making modifications, you most likely have an illegal contract and you are cheating yourself out of at least $5,000 a year. To be brief,,, here is what you must never do when it comes to your employment contract.

1) You never fly to any destination country to start working without a written hard copy original contract in your hand that is signed and sealed by the school principal or Vice-Principal with the specific terms you discussed and were promised contained in the contract, like housing, your job description, salary, taxes, pay days, full-time status, location of your work site, days and hours of your work, age of students etc. Electronic contracts and emails are not legally binding documents and are worthless. If it is not written in your contract, you will never see it.

2) You NEVER sign an employment contract with a third party like a job agent, recruiter, etc. The only thing you might possibly sign with third party middlemen would be a fee agreement. If they present a fee agreement to you, the only thing you should agree to is allow them to collect one month's salary from your employee - NOT from you. Labor laws in 90% of the countries limit and cap broker, placement, or facilitation fees to only one month wages. Anything more is a criminal offense and you need to refuse it. You can also report it to the Minister of Labor.

3) Never ever sign a contract that waives or forfeits any of your employee rights to over-time, paid holidays and vacation times, etc.

4) Never sign any agreement that is not in English or YOUR native language. Likewise do not sign agreements that have empty blanks or language that you do not understand or is ambiguous or vague.

5) Make sure you sign a 12 month and not a 9 or 10 month contract is you are signed on a full time basis. And be damn sure the words in the contract say you are being hired as a "Full Time ____________Teacher" (with the blank indicating what you will be teaching. Why? This will explain why all of the above is so important and what will happen if you ignore these items: https://chinaforeignteachersunion.wordp ... contracts/

6) Furthermore, don't let anyone force you to sign a contract on the spot. You put it in your bag or briefcase and take it home to review slowly and focused on every clause. If there is something you do not agree to, draw a line through it an put your initials by the end of that line.

7) Lastly, if someone tells you "this is the standard contract that all of us have to sign. That only applies if you are working for a public school or university, Yes, you cannot remove anything in those contracts but you can add lines and paragraphs, such as "I do not waive or forfeit any of my employee rights under any circumstances" or "As previously agreed by email or verbally, the employer shall provide the teacher a furnished one bedroom apartment at no expense to the teacher" or "The salary of $__________ paid monthly to the teacher on the _____day of every month is a net sum AFTER any and all taxes.

The devil is always in the details colleagues. A good and fair contract will be the most important factor in determining whether your new job will be fun or full of stress and arguments. More contract tips can be found at https://reddit.com/r/tefl_tips_traps_scams Good luck to you!
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Vagabond
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Vagabond »

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Well, I think you nailed it. The only thing I think I would add is that the school is not allowed to use my image in any printed advertising or internet promotion without my express written consent on a case by case basis. If you don't include this clause you may find your image on posters or websites giving glowing reviews for a sketchy school that you never said, or seeing yourself touted as a graduate of Yale, Princeton or Stanford when in fact maybe you graduated from Clark County Community College!

Btw, there is a reason they use small fonts in contracts and that is to discourage you from reading them. Do not be embarrassed to pull out a magnifying glass and read every single sentence twice to make sure nothing slips by your scrutiny. One overlooked phrase like "at the sole discretion of the Principal" or "unless or until" can cause you a lot of grief.
Before taking any teaching job in China make a quick visit over to https://reddit.com/r/ChinaScamCentral and https://reddit.com/r/TEFLreviews so your dream job does not become a nightmare.
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Tiger
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Tiger »

Good advice but most teachers are too lazy to do all that homework and just sign the regular crap contract. I did that for three years and then I made my own contract to do voice over narrations (pays a lot better and I don't have to work weekends). Also I remember they always used to give me contracts only in Chinese which was another reason I just signed the damn thing.
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Blue Moon
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Blue Moon »

IIMO lazy people get what they deserve - usually what is left after the pro-active people finish cherry-picking. For sure a fair contract is a priority to me. Thanks for the great post.
Watch your step in China. There is a pile of shit waiting for your foot around every corner that only laowai seem to step in. See https://reddit.com/r/workabroadfraud.
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Vagabond »

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That is a fairly concise and accurate summary of employment contract advice IMO OP. My only afterthought would be for Teacher applicants to negotiate their own contracts directly and not use any agents or recruiters who usually are more concerned about how they will profit most from your placement. If some principal or vice principal sends you to an agent to 'handle the paperwork" that is a BIG red Flag you want to avoid that school. Why? https://chinascampatrol.wordpress.com/ ... principal/
Before taking any teaching job in China make a quick visit over to https://reddit.com/r/ChinaScamCentral and https://reddit.com/r/TEFLreviews so your dream job does not become a nightmare.
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by Atlas »

If you don't take the time to read and amend your contract before you sign it, you have no right to bitch and moan later when you discover you weren't really hired as a full-time teacher and you are not going to collect your vacation pay, bonus money, and when you get run over by some scooter, you do not even have medical insurance. Do your homework now and get all that was promised to you in writing! https://reddit.com/r/tefl_tips_traps_scams
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jnmoncer
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Re: TEFL Teacher Employment Contracts - The Good, Bad, and Ugly. What to look for?

Unread post by jnmoncer »

WARNING - Premier esl recruiting - Tara Choi - AVOID
This is a warning post for anyone thinking of using 'Premier esl recruiting' or the recruiter 'Tara Choi' for finding a teaching position in Korea. I feel the need to warn people so that they dont find themselves in the position i did. This was by far the worst individual ive ever had to deal with in my working life and thats really saying something, I'll list some of the outrageous things this 'recruiter' did so that if you are reading this you dont have too;
- Lied about contacting the Korean embassy in a neighbouring country, and told me to go there and apply for the E2 visa,
- Lied to the school I had signed a contract with about how long the E2 visa would take, meaning they cancelled the offer
- Left me stranded in this neighbouring country, whenever I would ask for an update she would attack me and threaten me, I would have to speak with her on the phone whilst she criticised me for things like not saying thankyou enough?????? She couldnt even do her job and had already lied about so many things at this point but would act like a 5 year old child and demand that i thanked her??
- Once the initial job offer was cancelled due to her lies she tried to force me to sign a contract for a job I had no interest in taking, all because I was basically stranded at this point living in a hotel next to the Korean embassy waiting to fly to Korea.
- My main reason to even move to Korea from the country I had been teaching in was for a job offer in a small coastal town, as i wanted to move from the City and be close to beaches again, this 'recruiter' tried to force me to take a job in Seoul after the initial offer fell through, when she knew the reason for me moving to Korea.
- After I found another job she gave me a lot of abuse and then blocked me
- She got in touch with the original school and made them cancel the E2 visa, and tried to block the letter of release
- She pretended to be the director of the school when my new recruiter would ring and ask for the letter of release. Yes, this grown woman of over 50 years old ,would really impersonate a school director to spite someone for taking a better job offer.
- She spent so much time and energy trying to block the letter of the release being issued for absolutely no reason other than i chose a different recruiter who wasnt insane and could actually do their job properly.
For someone who used to brag about matching over 300 teachers a year to new positions (again, one of the many lies this woman told) you would think loosing one teacher wouldnt matter and she wouldnt of spent weeks trying to make sure they couldnt get a letter of release. Please let this be a warning to anyone thinking of using her as a recruiter. She will lie to you at any opurtunity and has the mental and emotional age of a 5 year old child. She is clearly unstable and a complete narcasist. If anyone would like the name and contact details for some competent recruiters for Korea feel free to send me a message.
AVOID- Premiereslrecruiting.com
AVOID premier esl recruiting
AVOID Tara Choi - esl recruiter
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