For the past twenty years foreign teachers teaching English in China did whatever they were told or simply terminated. At time they had to work 20 hours of unpaid overtime every week, or even paint a school house or run errands for the principal. Times have changed thank to President Xi Jinping and his demands that standard “Rule of Law” actually be defined, made equal for all, and enforced. So today foreign teachers have acquired more than 15 employee rights and are also free to pursue – an obtain legal remedy through both the Labor Arbitration Board and/or the Chinese courts. One expat teacher just won a $50,000 out of court settlement from Disney English which forced the teacher to do more marketing on the streets of China than teaching in the classroom!
So if you know your rights, here are half of them listed below. If you like what you see you can get the rest of them from either the Ministry of Labor, SAFEA, or the CFTU (China Foreign Teachers Union) via an email request. If you don’t read up on China labor law and your employee rights you will have no right to bitch and complain later when you learn some of your colleagues earn 30% more than you for doing identical jobs. Don’t feel bad, 70% of all foreign teachers in China did not know they had the below rights since the end of 2012! * You have the right to receive an original hard copy of your contract that is signed and chopped (red sealed) at the time you sign an employee agreement. * You have the right to receive a written job description prior to signing your contract. It is up to YOU to make sure that job description is specific, in English, and not so vague that your hours, working days, work location, pay rate, holidays, bonuses, visa costs, air fare reimbursement, release letters, etc are clearly spelled out in no uncertain terms. * You cannot be compelled nor forced to do anything not specified in your job description (which you should insist becomes and exhibit to your contract and also gets signed and chopped. This stops you from being used as a marketing monkey in shopping malls on the street handing out flyers). * Your probationary period cannot exceed one month for each year of your employment contract. So if you are asked to sign a one year contract, your probation period should not exceed one month. If however, you sign a contract that specifies a 3 or 6 month probationary period, you are implicitly waiving your right on this issue. * If you hold an FEC (Foreign Experts Certificate) you cannot be compelled work to unpaid overtime hours without your consent. This one protection alone is worth about 5,000 – 10,000 rmb every month to some expat teachers in China * You have the right to receive both an invitation letter and release letter free of charge (These are both legal requirements and administrative duties of the employer) * You have a right to a Z visa if employed in China (Again, this is a legal duty of the employers and of anyone tells you that you only get a Z visa after you complete your probationary period they are surely a scam operation to be avoided). These are just some of your rights as an employee in China. To learn all of them, we suggest you attend one of our seminars held on this subject twice a year in Beijing and Shanghai. If you wish to be notified of the next one, please send us an email to seminars@ChinaForeignTeachersUnion.org as seating is usually limited to the venues that are donated for these activities.
If your employee rights are being violated you can do three things to resolve the situation as follows: 1. Make a written complaint to the Principal and FAO of your school that is both signed and dated, and make a few copies for yourself. Ask for a written reply to avoid any “misunderstandings” and thank them in advance for fixing the problem as you anticipate they will. It is only fair that you give them a chance to do the right thing. 2. If you do not receive and email reply, you can then report the situation to SAFEA (english@SAFEA.gov.cn) and to us at help@ChinaForeignTeachersUnion.org and both parties will inquire on your behalf. This is usually enough to resolve the matter. 3. If however the situation does not improve within 30 days of making your written complaint, your next step is found at this link as a measure of last resort: http://bjstuff.com/profiles/blogs/cftu-advises-how-to-break-your-contract-resign-from-a-bad-or 4. To help warn other teachers about the school that is exploiting you, we will send the school principal a warning letter, and if two other teachers have the same problems the school will be blacklisted for one year, enough time for them to improve their abusive behavior. Now the bad news… If you do not have a Z visa in your passport, you are not entitled to any of the above rights since you are working as an illegal alien subject to arrest and deportation. You may want to visit http://ChinaScamWatch.org to learn more about the problems you will face working without a Z visa in China. 
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