Thread: Arbitration

We are setting up a new organization, something like a Better Business Bureau for the ELT world, where teachers and schools can resolve their differences through binding arbitration.

Our website is not up yet---www.esljudge,com---no discussion forums or anything. We just want to help teachers and reputable schools resolve disputes in a clear and fair way.

But we need your help. We are looking for 100 people from all areas of ELT, from the teacher to the DOS to the school owner, to participate in the dispute resolution process. With enough volunteers we hope that you will only be committing yourself to 5 hours per year.

If you are interested, please email me at esljudge@yahoo.com

Depends whose interests they are set up to serve I suppose

I'd be interested to know where the funding was coming from for this organisation before signing up, if it's all voluntary then it can only be a good thing I guess.

I wonder what incentive there would be for schools and employment agencies to comply with any arbitration service that probably wouldn't carry any legal clout. Any agency owners or school employers out there? What do you think?

I'm certainly not knocking the idea, I think it's a good one. But I'd be interested to know more about the idea and how to interpret the phrase 'binding arbitration'. I guess I could e-mail for details, but I'm sure there are other folks interested too - maybe the OP could come back and answer a few questions?

I wish you luck, but I predict the following:

1) judgement against the teacher - school is happy, teacher screwed
2) judgement against the school - teacher is happy, until the school ignores the finding

^ a ridiculous claim you make.

youre telling us that schools abroad do as they wish?

are you possibly suggesting that some schools would hire a consultant and brush off their suggestions, because its not their place to run, and hey- this is how we do it here.

woah. ive neeeeever heard of that in thailand


--dude, getting a thai school to sign into arbitration would be a nightmare. this of course needs to be done in formal, written thai- as an english contracts are worth as much as toilet paper.

if you were a school who had a problem with an english teacher- would you really put yourself through arbitration- which is like a judge- except the verdicts are usually compensated monitarily. ---which is exactly why successful, money grubbing school owners and bosses wont put up with a 3rd party cleaning out their underwear drawer.

i wish you the best. i know if i had a grieveance, id want arbitration. in fact ive had a couple lousy EFL jobs that would have done well with it.

but the teacher dont pay for it. its the school m8-- gotta convince the school you wont make them do things that will hurt their bottom line- or make them lose face. just cant see how you can avoid those two things

Originally Posted by stfranalum

getting a thai school to sign into arbitration would be a nightmare

That was, of course, my other point. I just forgot to write it.

The cruical word in the OP is "binding". How would it be "binding"?

Arbitration, in Thailand, is very specialised and needs to conform to strict rules, requirements.

This link should give you some ideas of what to look for http://www.arbiter.net/ThaiAct2002.htm

Yep. If the good judge could please detail and demonstrate how such an abitration would be binding, I'd be more interested.

Originally Posted by haltest

English contracts are legal and you can check with any Thai lawyer to confirm that

youre right.

but the practicality of a thai school doing this #1---and following the arbitration #2 is a bit absurd, no?

Arbitrator X: "Well Mr Head Honcho, you're going to owe this farang who made you lose face, 120,000baht."

H. Honcho: "well, i dont have it"

Arbitrator: "im going to have to ___________ to you. and i really mean it."


man theres no school owner, living in a poor country that doesnt know how to hold onto their dosh in the face of people trying to rip it from their hands. many business owners are connected. but school owners- dude they are real connnected. that there, aka those connections, are as binding as any private arbitrator firm.

Arbitrator X: "ahh H. Honcho, you owe this farang 200,000"

H. Honcho: "im going to call my brother in law who is a general. he will fix this"

Arbitrator X: "no you see, we have a binding english document here"

H. Honcho: "I said General, dude. Dont you know thailand?"

It's a nice idea - arbitration.

In the U.S., if you win a judgement, you can totally f*ck with someone and put a lien on their house and car until they repay you.

But that just ain't gonna happen in Thailand.

I would hazard a guess that the OP is looking at dispute resolution, rather than arbitration