Yeah, unfortunately this poor treatment of local staff is a problem on several levels.

Firstly it can create embarrassing and uncomfortable working conditions for foreign teachers and local staff. In some cases ( though not perhaps in the specific case detailed in the last post ) foreign teachers are treated in such a superior way by the management of a school compared to their local counterparts that it creates a very poor working environment. How often do you read posts by people claiming that certain members of local staff dislike foreigners? Obviously there are many reasons for anti- foreign sentiment but If the management of a school creates a poor working environment by treating staff differently because of their race then this only adds to it.

I worked at a school once where there was a clear difference between the treatment of foreign staff and local staff. As a group the foreign teachers met several times to discuss the problems that this was causing and decided upon the following action

1. To act in a professional manner to in some way justify the difference in particular of compensation and benefits between foreigners and locals

2. To show support towards local staff. A simple example would be - upon hearing a member of the management laying into a local staff member, a foreign teacher would go over to the area where the 'disagreement' was taking place. You wouldn't have to actually interpose in the situation but the presence of a foreign teacher was usually enough to modify the bad behavior of managers towards local staff. In this example you're actually using the unbalanced system to restore some balance and support your colleagues.

3. A more active stance was taken by the foreign teachers against the managements policy of fines for local staff.

All in all the working environment at that school was the best Ive experienced in china. For the most part the relationship between foreign and local staff was excellent. I understand that for some foreign teachers, their working situation may not permit them to take all of the above action. In particular it was the unity of the foreign teachers team that allowed us to make changes that benefited everyone.

As with foreign teachers, when local staff are unhappy it causes a high amount of job turnover (as the previous poster stated everyone at Helen is looking for a new job). I've spoken to Chinese management on several occasions about why I feel that the happiness of Chinese staff is at least as important as that of the foreign teachers. My rational is simple. Foreign teachers will leave the school at some point. It may not be because of a negative experience but perhaps because they just want to go home or fancy a change of location. Natural leakage must be expected. On the other hand, if you provide better working conditions for your local staff then they may decide to build a career with your organization. Which school operates better the one with experienced and content staff or the one with high staff turnover?

The benefits to a foreign teacher of finding a place that treats its local staff fairly are huge. There are many examples on this board of schools malevolent actions denying foreign teachers what they are owed but I'd guess that there are just as many circumstances in which foreign teachers lives are made more difficult just because they are dealing with inexperienced, unmotivated and unhappy local staff who aren't capable of doing a good job in the first place