WARNING DANGEROUS JOBS IN HUOQUI COUNTY, IT IS A LARGE TOWN, ANHUI COUNTY CHINA
This is the most dangerous job I have ever seen as ESL job goes.
The story end will let you know that the school boss and his agent and agency and the local police are all in bed together, working in unison to defraud the teacher of ALL their pay, not just part of it, as might be the problem at other schools.
The agency changes letters in its names, and pretends to be from near Beijing, and the hiring is done on the Internet, so the location may be false.
It has already been BLACKLISTED by teachers, and one name is Beijing New Times agency. Two workers are called Shelley, a girl, who loves to interview people with SKYPE, and a guy called Victor or Vincent. From the get go, the teacher is played as a victim, and the lies are connected to one another. If you know a walk in agency with a well established street address, they are probably innocent, as the scam agency likes to copy real sounding names.
The town itself is off the beaten track, there are no Western businesses there, and there are not even visitors from other Chinese big areas, like HK, or Taiwan - so the teacher is really alone, hired on a one by one basis. The agents send someone to deliver the teacher there, though they lie and do not say they are working for the agency, as that would necessitate providing a contract when you arrive at the school, where no one will have enough English to put anything in writing.
We are cynical anyway about contracts, but just going through their game plan.
There is a huge welcome, lovely dinner, and a surprise that there is no real school, just a tiny training centre youg girls who want to be secretaries, not the big computer school you have been told. There is not ESL program or kids programme, which is what they tell the teacher they will be doing. The hugest shock is the housing. It is totally improper and against Chinese rules and regulations.
All teachers we know who do summer school are put into hotels or government approved dorms, usually at universities, colleges, or some really school type of school, which is empty in the summer time. Here the scam turns on dumping you into a lovely house, you are told the teacher has their own housing, a freestanding house, by the agent. When you get there, you are told, half the house. Then you are told the school boss of all the young girls - he lives in the house too. So it is a surprise that the teacher has to live with the boss.
This is the only school and job that includes living with the boss, and it leads to terrible trouble, as planned by the employer.
He should be investigated by the government OUTSIDE of his geographical area, which he has all sewn up. How did he get his wonderful mansion?
Still there are good things, to lure the teacher in, the one room is great, huge, with all mod cons, and you get to plan the whole programme.
Victor the agent who pretends to be from Beijing talks about his rich family living near this town, he is from Anhui, a young guy, who says, I brought home a British teacher here last year, and she disappeared after a few days, it was stressful for her to live with my Chinese family. The employees at the school mention that two years ago there was an ESL teacher hired, who was taken down to the police station, to have their papers checked. The teacher disappeared after that, though major universities in this area are so strapped for teachers, they hire on only a TESOL, and even non Western accents.
Well there is a lot more to say, but the contract arrives two weeks into the job, and it says, you will be paid after the last day of work, at the end of summer. This is bullshit, as summer school pay cash, and no one waits two months for money. Even worse, the school boss and owner who lives with the teacher and sees them every hour of the day says, I am not your employer, the agency in Beijing is. The school boss also works at a government school, where his pay would not be much. ZHAO is the family name.
The agency who only spoke with you on the Internet for five minutes. Who could be anywhere.
Teachers who insist on getting paid in cash sooner are then treated to the Police Station Check one or two days before the end of the school. Bingo!
They are breaking the law by living with the school owner, they are fined heavily, and the police tell them this after the passport of the Western democracy is already in their hands. The Teacher will have no passport, no money, and even no housing at that point.
The wife of the owner of the school tours the rural areas looking for young girls to help out by giving the scholarships to the secretarial school to, which is really odd, as the school says no one has to pay to go to the school, yet the owner and his wife are living in what would be called a mansion in larger cities, a ten or twelve room house with courtyard, and metalwork gate.
The school is across from the Judicial Courts, and only a few doors down from a Police Station, so the police knew the whole summer that the teacher was with the owner, living and working there. If they caught the teacher before the end of the summer, the school boss would have to refund all the tuition. It only takes a few police to do this.
So the gain from the teacher, a summer of work all free, and maybe other profits, work it out. Oh yes, he is a computer expert, and could easily see what you are doing on your computer.
WE WANT THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA TO LOOK INTO THIS SCHOOL.
WE ARE NOT CRITICIZING GOOD CHINESE PEOPLE.
IF YOU CAN TRANSLATE THIS INTO CHINESE, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.
THE TEACHERS ARE ALL YOUNG WOMEN.
Thank you for helping us, we tried to post at Dave's ESL Cafe but did not decide which forum.