The Case Against Signing A Contract Before You Arrive

I know in the UAE, the only valid contract is the one written in Arabic. It should be translated word for word into English, though it is not uncommon for their to be LOADS of descrepencies. The real \’bitch\’ is that you sign the English contract, sign another one in Arabic, have no idea if they are the same, and in many cases a dishonest employer is breaking the law. In order to take action, you have to remain in the country, possibly working for your crap employer while you\’re filing a complaint against him in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. If you leave the company and then file the complaint, you\’ll need a lot of patience with the ministry and most likely some legal counsel. I think much of the Gulf Arab nations operate like this.

An acquaitance of mine left KSA w/ her husband and family at the end of a contract in June. The school, well-known, told every teacher booked on plane to leave that same day, that they did not have their summer salaries. You\’ve moved out, you have no place to go, you cannot remain in the country legally, and you\’re being done in.

I guess ideally one would seek the best qualifications and pursue jobs with only the most reputable institutions. That takes a lot of research, time, and money. I would say that only about 15% of ESOL teachers go this route. I guess the best thing anyone can do is have a \

Sorry…I don’t know why that comment looks like it does. My last sentence was meant to say,
“I guess the best thing anyone can do is have a Plan B in case the first job goes bust.”

Wow…I have to admit the theme of contracts and shifty schools is a huge one. I should actually do a post on foreign language contracts - I think that’s the case in a lot of countries (only a contract in the local language is valid), so even if you sign one in English…the local language one is the legal one. I suppose this is fair enough in a sense but it’s very easy to see how a shifty school could abuse it.

Thanks for this example - what a bummer for your friend and the other teachers who didn’t get paid - it’s kind of depressing but it goes to show that this kind of shifty school behavior can actually happen in a wide variety of situations (I’m assuming that anyone working in Saudi Arabia already has decent qualifications and probably experience, especially if her family was along too…). Yikes.

The guy in question is a well-qualified teacher w/ years of experience. In some countries, taking action is much easier, but imagine that you have no summer salary, no visa to remain, and can’t likely afford a hotel let alone an attorney while you work out the illegality of it all. I think a post about foreing contracts would be really valuable. A friend of mine took a job in Taiwan. Her ticket was arranged, but when she arrived the school hadn’t even been built and her ‘accommodation’ was living with the owner and his family. lol.

That would be awful to be in either situation. I suppose the legal system in one’s own country can be hard to navigate, not to mention that of a foreign country! But the way the visa is set up - such that you really do have to leave and can’t just come back - does seem to be a risk factor…I hate to say it’s all a crapshoot (it’s not) but I think there are unfortunately cases where experienced, responsible teachers lose out. Anyway, see my latest post on that topic: http://www.tefllogue.com/finding-a-job/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-tefl-contracts-but-were-afraid-to-ask.html

Not anything really conclusive but a start!