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Q: Breach of contract penalties
I have been looking at a few jobs and is actually hunted now by a school who wants me to teach there. But the contract has some really weird stipulations, i.e breach of contract penalties of $800 to $3,000 that has to be paid. This sounds very fishy, surely just before the end of the contract they can drum up some charges and have me pay back all my earnings? There is nothing in the contract about what these would constitute and who decides on the penalty. Am I paranoid or is this standard practice?
9 years 16 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
You should be careful with such Contracts, or you should consider, whatever Contract you'll sign, you are obliged to respect stipulations there.
If you'll work legally with Z/RPermit, you could seek help of SAFEA, which will mediate in dispute between you and employer.
Type 'SAFEA' in search above for address and contact no. in your city.
You could dial SAFEA's no., and ask them for an advice on the matter (and employer).
However, in my experience SAFEA will respect the Contract, and advise/demand from you and your employer to respect stipulations there.
Look for another, better Contract.
That sounds quite fishy to me - I've never had a financial penalty for breach of contract. It's a big red flag - the school might treat its employees poorly and have lots of people wanting to leave early so they put in that provision to try and force people to stay and accept bad working conditions. They could even try to drive you out just to collect the payment. If you're applying in Changchun, PM me as I know a lot of the schools in town and some have very bad reputations.
expatlife26:
So you mean to say you maintain a private...blacklist??
You aren't helping your case, dongbeiren.
dongbeiren:
Why did u delete your post calling me the leader? Yongge is a guy I hung out with and he can confirm I'm just a dude.
Stiggs:
Being familiar with the reputation of some schools in your city is not keeping a blacklist, it's just being familiar with the reputation of some of the schools in your city.
expatlife26:
It was deleted by admin cuz were not sposeDa talk about The Leader.
dongbeiren:
Thank you Stiggs. I make a friendly post trying to help a guy out that I actually met in person and that weirdo expatlife26 can't resist calling me a scammer. If I were really a scammer wouldn't I post something to advertise my scam? Why are you so quick to point the finger at me expat? I know that my history on this site has been brief but I have been one of the most active posters over the past 3 months and anyone can look at a history of my posts and see that I am a regular forum member. You seem awfully defensive. I never called you a scammer/recruiter/hacker or anything like that. I called you a weirdo for constantly making weird posts with pictures of Pinocchio and injecting this CFTU crap into unrelated topics ad nauseum.
I've seen that in most contracts... penalty breach clauses are normal - and not just in China.
Doesn't mean it's fishy, but something to be aware of.
In theory, it goes both ways.
Call the CFTU, they can also help with being hunted by schools.
In theory the penalty should apply to both parties, at least that's what the SAFEA requires. In practice the school will usually try to trap you if they treat their employees badly.
If the fine for breach is one way only then your contract is worth peanuts, they can still try to enforce it but that won't be in a court.
I asked them to send a Chinese copy of the contract and haven't heard from them since. I think I will give this one a skip.
Eorthisio:
The English contract can't be used in a lawsuit in China... didn't I post this already?
expatlife26:
I've actually heard the opposite is true from the HR department,
that for expats a chinese language contract isn't binding and we have to sign both a chinese and english version.
That seems a bit too sensible for this place though doesn't it? haha but I swear I was told that but someone I consider pretty intelligent!
So expatlife26 accuses me twice of being a scammer, I reply that I know the op personally and 5 minutes later my post is deleted and his are edited to make him sound reasonable. What's going on here?
expatlife26:
Deleted by admin not me... I pray youre not The Leader.
dongbeiren:
And I pray that you're just a financial analyst with a nerdy obsession and not someone with a more sinister agenda.... actually I don't pray at all. I don't care. Half of the stuff you post is engaging and interesting about career related topics and the other half is creepy pictures of Pinocchio and weird references.
if anything in a contract is unclear, just question it before you sign.
an honest employer will be happy to discuss concerns with you.
ask for specifics or examples.
if you accept fuzzy clauses, you open yourself up to the unscrupulous.
I have read of people on ESL forums being in awful situations at their school but not able to leave because of the breach of contract clause. I know they're quite common and while it might not be a decider for me it would be a 'proceed with caution' red flag. Shady schools seem to like that clause.
SAFEA doesn't help anything,they don't care,the answer from them is :you guys have labor problem,go to labor meadiation.my husband signed the english contract, i translated into chinese and let the translation company stamped their seal,we collected the envidence and called police got back my husband's FEC,sued the company,and we won about 2500 USD.(if you guys work illegally,then you are not protected in China.
