What to do if your school doesn't pay your salary?

[Nomadic Flow]

Hello,

 

I had resigned from teaching at my school.  I gave more noticed than required in my contract. As of now I am still owed my salary for November and final salary for December. 

My school employer has withheld my salary before (and other teachers that resigned too). There is a history of teachers not getting salaries paid (including my salary on countless occasions). I don't like the fact that I worked for free and got taken advantage of. 

What steps can I take to get my money. I am currently not in Thailand and don't know when/if I will be there soon.  My employer took my WP back and assured me that the money would be paid when they received cash for term fees.  Still, I am waiting and being ignored.

 

If (by some chance)  I go back to Thailand, what steps can I take to get the money owed to me? Or what can I do from outside of Thailand?  

[poohy]

My sincere commiserations BUT

If you are  not here i suspect theres not a fat lot you can do.

I assume the school, which sounds very dodgy knows this and is happily spending your salary, while ignoring you

i may be wrong and would happy for you  if i was but i doubt it.

[VocalNeal]

Sadly i think the answer was : Go to the labour dept in the 7 days you have to leave the country.

 

Labour dept. treat everyone fairly even expats.

[blackcab]

You need to go to the Labour Court. If you are out of the country then it is possible to instruct a solicitor to do this for you, however they would require payment in advance and their fees would probably be more than your outstanding salary.

 

If you are in Thailand you can go to the Labour Court and go through the process without a solicitor. That is exactly what Thai citizens who have a grievance do. If you don't speak Thai it will speed things up if you take a Thai speaker with you.

[Vacuum]

1 hour ago, Nomadic Flow said:

I don't like the fact that I worked for free and got taken advantage of. 

What steps can I take to get my money

Facebook?

 

[bangkoken]

Hire an attorney and have them send a 'Demand for Payment' letter to the school via registered/certified mail. The letter will indicate that you are prepared to file a suit with The Thai Labor court. Attorney fee to prepare and send the letter should be about 5,000. THB. Look up The Kingdom Law Group website, they did a good job for a close friend of mine.

[blackcab]

An off topic post has been removed.

[Big Guns]

You have up to 2 years to claim for unpaid wages at the labour court. The school has to pay you the wages plus 15% compound interest per week.

[atyclb]

bangkok lawyers tend to be pricy especially ones targeting foreigners. if u have a thai friend they could find a fair/normally priced lawyer to get your money owed. upcountry lawyers are less costly.where r u located?

[blackcab]

45 minutes ago, Big Guns said:

You have up to 2 years to claim for unpaid wages at the labour court. The school has to pay you the wages plus 15% compound interest per week.

 

Are you sure?

 

If you are owed 1,000 baht for 1 year, at 15 per cent interest that is compounded weekly, the interest payable after 1 year is over 1.4 million baht. After 2 years the interest is in excess of 2 billion baht.

 

If what you say is true then I suggest the OP waits until the last minute then returns to Thailand and enters their claim.

[PerkinsCuthbert]

47 minutes ago, Big Guns said:

You have up to 2 years to claim for unpaid wages at the labour court. The school has to pay you the wages plus 15% compound interest per week.

15% compound interest per week? Are you certain of this, it sounds usurous, even if it is a penalty.

 

I see blackcab has done the arithmetic. The quoted figure is quite impossible.

[Nomadic Flow]

Thank you all very much for your input! This is useful information. I am also hoping that by notifying authorities, no future teachers at the school will have to deal with this.  

Once again,  thank you! 

[Caine]

Work for shit people get treated like shit. Simple

[Tchooptip]

18 hours ago, Vacuum said:

Facebook?

 

Not impossible and certainly not so stupid it could seem!

[WyrldTraveler]

Describing your plight in detail stating only the facts will possibly shield you from a defamation claim, especially if you post on forums which deal extensively with teaching issues (i.e. ESLcafe.com, tefl.com, teachingnomad.com, ajarn.com, etc.)

 

Any school which cannot hire teachers to perpetuate their scam will suffer.  You are advised to file your claim BEFORE this course of action is followed.  Broke schools cannot pay.

 

 

[wreckingcountry]

Dont hire a lawyer in Thailand ! You will end up losing more money ! If you really want to take on the school go to labour court in Bangkok with all the information and papers you have ! It’s not only the agencies that screw foreign teachers, schools do it directly!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

[wreckingcountry]

Describing your plight in detail stating only the facts will possibly shield you from a defamation claim, especially if you post on forums which deal extensively with teaching issues (i.e. ESLcafe.com, tefl.com, teachingnomad.com, ajarn.com, etc.)

 

Any school which cannot hire teachers to perpetuate their scam will suffer.  You are advised to file your claim BEFORE this course of action is followed.  Broke schools cannot pay.

 

 

“Broke schools” ? They had the money and if they don’t or didn’t and had problems paying, the teacher should have been told and given a written document confirming he/she would get money owed !

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[JimP]

You will NEVER get your money back. You have two choices: forget about it.  Or find your way back on campus and steal as much stuff as you can get your hands on.

[Proboscis]

3 hours ago, WyrldTraveler said:

Describing your plight in detail stating only the facts will possibly shield you from a defamation claim, especially if you post on forums which deal extensively with teaching issues (i.e. ESLcafe.com, tefl.com, teachingnomad.com, ajarn.com, etc.)

 

Any school which cannot hire teachers to perpetuate their scam will suffer.  You are advised to file your claim BEFORE this course of action is followed.  Broke schools cannot pay.

 

 

The truth will NOT shield you from defamation. All the person who feels they have been defamed has to do is show they have suffered in some way, such as not being able to hire new teachers. And remember defamation is a criminal offense. They report it to the police. And you get arrested.

 

Instead, follow the lawyer and labour department route as advised.

[Too young to be old]

This won't help you, but I had the opposite happen. many years ago I worked as a proof reader on the Thailand Times and they kept paying me after I left. I veiwed it as recompense for losing my appartment deposit.

[BurgerGung]

Well, do you fancy a holiday in Thailand? Do you want to reward the scammers, or get paid? 

 

The Labour Court is free and it's working thoroughly & fast. They will handle the serving of the defendant and arrange a settlement conference asap, often in less than 2 weeks.

 

Can you prove that you have worked these months? 

 

Certain schools keep pulling these stunts. And no, I would not waste time involving the Labour Department. (Though I confess that this is based on hearsay from a lawyer and a friend's experiences. The friend was promised na written "answer" many weeks' later) ... 

 

You might try filing with 1111 , reporting crime. That's what it is, JMHO. In addition, I would report this to www.RD.go.th and use simple language and also a Google translation.

 

The scam relies on folks being scared or thinking they will not win etc.