Learning Education Center, Shanghai

Shanghai is a wonderful city with many good schools. However some are just too dishonest for words and should be avoided.

I am a university professor and only teach English in my holidays. I have made it a policy to avoid small private schools, who may get into financial difficulties, and then not pay you, but last summer I was caught out by a big school in Shanghai.

Post-SARS, there were few native English teachers available in Shanghai and I worked extended hours for Learning Education centre, (L-E-C), which was desperately short of teachers. They made a mistake with my salary the first month, which they promised to fix the next month. They had paid me at a rate of 150 RMB per hour, instead of the agreed 220 RMB. The next month produced no change and I was underpaid again. During the final month they were to pay me a combination of back pay and the total for that month. NOTHING!!! They paid me nothing at all!

When I contacted the owner he informed me that I would be physically beaten if I complained, to teach me respect for Chinese, and then he would have me deported. Almost a year later I am still out of pocket for more than 16,000 RMB.

What can I do? The Education Bureau is in his pocket and the school is prepared to say anything to discredit me. Lawyer friends say there is little that can be done except warn others, or take a large group of men and beat offer them violence.

I have since discovered that many other teachers have sufffered delayed and incorrect payments. Even Chinese assistants complained to me they were not paid on time.

This is a re-repost of an item that was originally found on “Nate’s Chinese School Review”. Courtsey of: chinaschoolreview.net