Hi Andy

Magister : It's a well known and regular holiday, so if you choose to teach in China I assume you would take the time to familiarise yourself with local holidays/customs etc, therefore this is standard.

You'll see from my post that i agree it's standard - in fact the first two words of my post state that this is "standard procedure". I'd also agree that people coming to work in a foreign country should find out as much as possible about that country and it's working conditions prior to arrival. That being said, there is always going to be things that you haven't considered and these forums are used by many to help fill the gaps.
Whereas it is standard procedure in China to make students study and teachers work during the weekend to compensate for a public holiday that falls during the week it is not standard procedure in the majority of countries that foreign teachers hail from. Therefore, confusion is an understandable problem. In fact the initial e-mail from Marcus's employer isn't very clear. They are hedging their bets on what the school he works at will decide to do "Different schools may adjust their own schedule time" and "if you get work during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival" are rather vague statements. In the city i work i can tell you that the vast majority of schools and unis will follow the official days off as 2nd-4th April but there are a few exceptions (including the top primary school in the city) who will go with Sat, Sun & Mon as days off. It's worth teachers considering this even if only to prompt them to ask what's going on with working days over the next couple of weeks. It'll also be worth them considering what will happen with 1st May holiday and 23rd June (Dragon Boat Festival).

I fail to see how this is not 'conducive' to a good teaching environment?

Let me spell it out very clearly. Let's say for example that you work at a training school and your normal days off are Weds & Thurs that means that with the move of your regular days off you may well find that you work an extended period without break.

31st Sat - Day Off (moved from Weds)
1st Sun - Day Off (moved from Thurs)
2nd Mon - Given as the public holiday
3rd Tues - work
4th Weds - work (this was your day off but now moved to sat and there's a good chance that you'll teach your classes from the 31st here)
5th Thurs work (this was your day off but now moved to sun and there's a good chance that you'll teach your classes from the 1st here)
6th Fri - work
7th Sat - work
8th Sun - work
9th Mon - work
10th Tues - work
11th Wed - work
12th Thurs - back to regular day off

That's 9 days straight without a break. Teachers are likely to be quite tired by the time they get towards the end of that stint so yes i fully believe that their lessons will suffer as a result. Do you disagree with this point? Are teaching standards better when a teacher is rested and working within their standard routine or when they are tired?

Do you work at a public job? If you do then WOW, even public places cannot be trusted to uphold the law regarding labor.

I teach at a state-run senior high on behalf of a Chinese agent. I believe most of the other foreign experts working for the agent do so too.
My contract is with the agent, not with the school. As for my salary, the school pays the agent, and the agent pays me.

Standard procedure i'm afraid for all public schools & universities to have class on the weekend to make up for the time students will have off during the week. Bizarre idea i know but what can you do!

Anyone working at a training school should also be aware that this will probably have consequences for them as well. With the the students in public school on Saturday & Sunday they won't be able to attend the training school classes which are primarily scheduled at the weekends. What will the training schools response to this be? Well they may well decide to move your days off to the weekend so that they can re-schedule the weekend classes to during the week and avoid having to cancel classes/lose revenue. What that means for you the teacher is that you'll probably have to work a long spell without a break, possibly 9days which isn't conducive to good teaching standards IMO.

From my caring Chinese employer:

Dear Foreign Experts:

April 4th is Tomb-Sweeping Festival.According to the Notice of the Local Government,all people will have a rest from April 2nd to April 4th.Weekends are adjusted.On March 31st (Saturday),April 1st (Sunday),people continue to work.Different schools may adjust their own schedule time.But if you get work during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival,you will get extra day's salary.

By the way,the weather is changing a little now and a little then.After Tomb-Sweeping Festival it will get warm.Please pay attention to health.

Director ___________________