Thread: Private college screwing me during summer session.

Here's the situation, I just finished up my 3 months of "probation" and signed a fresh 1-year contract with this small private college in BKK. Part of the contract includes summer session but they didn't write in summer term explicitly in the contract and other teachers who have worked there before said they were paid by class or by hour.

My summer teaching schedule turned out to be 2 days (Sat/Sun) and they loaded up Sat with 8 hours of classes (2 classes; a 5 hour session and a 3 hour session) and 5 hours on Sunday which makes 13 hours a week. Today I went to add a new bank account for the monthly deposit and HR staff told me that i'd only be getting paid PER DAY based on my monthly contract which is 33,000/mo prorated for 8 days a month.

This means i'd be teaching 52 hours a month and only getting paid something ridiculous like 6,000-8,000 baht. Actually it might be even less than that since the HR staff were dividing 33,000 by 30 days instead of 20 working days. In the best scenario that comes out to a whopping 169 baht an hour not to mention it takes me a little over 200 baht round trip to commute to the campus to begin with. This turned out to be even far less than what the Filipino substitutes get per hour teaching the same session.

Anyways, I told them that wasn't what I was told and they called up the head and let me talk to her. She was pretty much adamant and made veiled threats about me "breaking my contract." Note: that I was not rude to her even once or raised my voice. Before this we had pretty cordial social interaction. I decided to look at a copy of my contract and sure enough it's for 1 year but nowhere does it mention a summer session or pay stipulations. Summer is almost always considered an "additional" term everywhere else i've worked.

The head HR manager is Thai of course and married to the VP or something like that. It's obvious she doesn't care for foreign staff much since other teachers have had pay issues (false tax deductions) and have gotten screwed before as well.

Since i've only taught two weeks for the summer session it's not too late for me to bail. My question is can they do anything legally to screw me with this 1 year contract I signed which doesn't even say anything about summer to begin with?

Run!!! Now!!!!

Originally Posted by Don Ho

Run. They can cancel your work permit though so there is that to consider. If you don't have a WP yet, run.

I can actually line up another job right after I quit but it won't start until the normal school term (June) what are the legal ramifications if they do cancel it? Do I just need to go outside the country asap and get a tourist visa?

If that's all I need to do they can shove the WP right up their ass.

The visa will not be cancelled with the WP.

It is theoretically possible but have yet to hear of anyone saying it's been done.

Besides, maybe the OP paid for it himself.........or has a Non Imm O. Or a tourist visa.

Hard to say without more info.

just quit. . leave the country yourself (which automatically cancels your WP) and come back on a tourist visa and score another job. .

Originally Posted by Lost

The visa will not be cancelled with the WP.

It is theoretically possible but have yet to hear of anyone saying it's been done.

I didn't pay for it myself. Amusingly enough they just finished processing both my WP and business visa the last couple weeks before I found out they pulled this bait and switch crap on me.

I also called up one of the filipino teachers who usually subs and I asked him what was the last rate he got there and it was 400 b an hour.

At 52 hours a week x 400 = 20800 b a month is what I should be getting. I also found out that when he called about the summer session they told him that teachers with 1 year contracts get "priority" for the classes.

So it's apparent now they didn't feel like paying him per hour and decided to try screwing me instead because they thought they could keep me down with their toilet paper contract.

Their scheme is pretty much a big fuck you and so blatant it makes me wonder why. I showed up everyday on time, taught, and even made tests. Oh, and I even went there at the end of my "probationary" contract to finish grading finals for them. I'm supposed to go talk with the HR head next Tuesday. I'll probably blow some smoke to keep things civil so I can get my last deposit and my work permit from them. After that it's adios amigos.

Don't you think this is odd behaviour in such a lovable smiley friendly nation of people frt?

Originally Posted by markle

Exactly.

If you can line up something else straight away then get your ducks in a row, give the required notice, and quit. Simply transfer the employer details over. I've done it (though it was a while ago and I don't remember the exact details) and didn't have to leave the country or anything.

I do have an option lined up unfortunately the soonest I can start is June 1 (normal term) and no one I know is hiring during their summer session. Anyways, I have a savings and I was thinking about going for my divemaster course sometime anyways . I might just take this as a mixed blessing and go to the beach for awhile and relieve my stress away from unscrupulous old thai hags.