Teaching in Phuket: the warning signs

[webfact]

Teaching in Phuket: the warning signs
Eric Haeg


If Phuket language schools don’t follow the law, they might very well have empty classrooms.

PHUKET: -- Red flags – they’re clearly visible on Phuket’s beaches but not at Phuket’s schools.

While finding employment as a teacher in Thailand isn’t difficult, finding a good employer is a completely different matter.

Aside from ensuring the salary is competitive, teachers need to ensure their benefits are reflective of the position, and that the employment contract is within the law.

Most of Phuket’s mainstream schools have come a long way in ensuring their foreign staff meet local and national regulations, yet recent reports from teachers applying to two schools in Phuket Town suggest not everyone is prepared to do what is required to legally employ foreign teachers.

If a foreigner meets legal requirements for teaching and is applying for a full-time position, nothing less than a legally binding contract is in order. Seeing as some schools still wish to ignore the law, here are a few red flags to watch out for:

The employer wants the teacher to start work before applying for a visa and work permit: Unless married, a non-immigrant B visa is required and the employer must supply the applicant with official documentation.

If no qualifying visa has been obtained, a work permit application cannot be submitted. Legally, a foreigner cannot work until the work permit has been approved. While this is routinely ignored, working before an application has even been submitted can result in much worse penalties.

The employer charges the teacher for sick days: Believe it or not, a school in Phuket Town tried to get an applicant to accept this as a term of his employment just last month.

There may not be a brighter red flag than this one. Everyone gets sick and there’s less than a snowball’s chance in Thailand that the Thai teachers are accepting this as a caveat of their employment.

The employer refuses to provide an English-language contract: Almost all foreign teachers cannot fluently read Thai and without being able to do so, being provided with an English translation of the Thai contract is a reasonable expectation.

If a school cannot provide one, they either have very little experience employing foreigners or they’re hoping to take liberties with the law.

The employer will not provide a copy of the employment contract: Common sense isn’t all that common but this one really should have an applicant running for the hills, perhaps the Cameron Highlands to find a job in Malaysia where these tactics aren’t so common.

Even after signing a contract, if the employer refuses to provide a copy in Thai and English, simply walk away. It’s a terrible start and not a great sign of things to come.

Accepting anything less than the legal norm won’t help an individual teacher and it certainly won’t help Phuket’s foreign teaching community as whole. Be calm and respectful when negotiating terms of employment but also be firm in ensuring legal terms of employment are met.

A TEFL trainer since 2007, Eric welcomes all questions and comments

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/teaching-in-phuket-the-warning-signs-43514.php


-- Phuket News 2013-12-18

[Johnnie99]

Where's the naming and shaming?

[lostmebike]

finding a good employer is a completely different matter.

​Not only relevant to Phuket I'm sure.

[Suradit69]

finding a good employer is a completely different matter.

​Not only relevant to Phuket I'm sure.

It does take (at least) two to make a contract. I'm sure there are some genuinely good, well-motivated teachers seeking employment in Thailand, just as there are schools here that have high standards when it comes to engaging foreign staff and who comply with both the spirit and letter of the law.

On the other hand, there does appear to be rather a significant number of people whose interest in teaching in Thailand has more to do with engineering a cheap long-stay holiday and whose skills/talents/qualifications for teaching would be considered risible in any other locale. as well as by the better schools here.

There seems to be a belief that "hey, I speak English, sort of," and "I was once a student, briefly," so surely that's all that's needed to teach English or most any other subject. Dubious schools that provide dubious contractual arrangements and are rather free and easy with delivery of compensation can exist and keep functioning when there is a pool of substandard (and otherwise clueless) applicants always on tap.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Suradit69

[Blindside]

I agree with most of the article. However I must point out that many schools (even reputable ones) will have you work before your WP is issued. When the process is often measured in months it is not feasible to wait.

If the country allowed you to obtain one before you arrived then we could be serious when we speak of punishing people for starting to teach beforehand.

I applied for a Non-B in my home country, they declined me as I did not have a "pre-approved work permit" - you cannot of course get the WP with out the requisite visa. 5555555555555555555555

In the muddy waters created by such inefficient, illogical and bureaucratic processes - this is where we find the bottom feeders prospering and doing what the article elucidates on.

[lostmebike]

finding a good employer is a completely different matter.

​Not only relevant to Phuket I'm sure.

It does take (at least) two to make a contract. I'm sure there are some genuinely good, well-motivated teachers seeking employment in Thailand, just as there are schools here that have high standards when it comes to engaging foreign staff and who comply with both the spirit and letter of the law.

On the other hand, there does appear to be rather a significant number of people whose interest in teaching in Thailand has more to do with engineering a cheap long-stay holiday and whose skills/talents/qualifications for teaching would be considered risible in any other locale. as well as by the better schools here.

There seems to be a belief that "hey, I speak English, sort of," and "I was once a student, briefly," so surely that's all that's needed to teach English or most any other subject. Dubious schools that provide dubious contractual arrangements and are rather free and easy with delivery of compensation can exist and keep functioning when there is a pool of substandard (and otherwise clueless) applicants always on tap.

Agree with a lot you say and maybe the long-stay holiday and whose skills/talents/qualifications for teaching would be considered risible in any other locale kind of 'teachers' are the ones who sometimes turn perfectly, other wise rational schools into complete a*seholes after being messed around by such 'teachers'. However, I think the problem is far deeper than that.

[Scott]

You can get a non-immigrant B visa with the proper paperwork. If your papers (Degree, transcript, etc.,) are sent to the Ministry Of Education, they will issue a letter to the Embassy/consulate where you are applying for the visa and the non-immigrant B visa will be issued.

I have never heard of a pre-approved Work Permit.

[amse]

I taught at 7 schools in Thailand, bilingual and international. One school in Phuket and six in Bangkok, not one of them had the contract in English & Thai, only Thai language, which of course is illegal, and unbinding, so I can walk out anytime without notice, which I did once because of a bad attitude towards me by the 2 owners and Singaporian principal.

[Scott]

If there is a Thai contract and an English contract, the Thai contract is the legal one in the country.

[Africanteacher]

I'll take a Thai contract any day.

[tingtongteesood]

Not news, complete common sense. Next !

[Blindside]

You can get a non-immigrant B visa with the proper paperwork. If your papers (Degree, transcript, etc.,) are sent to the Ministry Of Education, they will issue a letter to the Embassy/consulate where you are applying for the visa and the non-immigrant B visa will be issued.

I have never heard of a pre-approved Work Permit.

Which is why I put it in quotation marks.

I got my Non-B in Penang, so yes you are correct. BUT, this does not apply to all embassies in all places. Also you now need approval from the Teaching / Education council (whatever it is called) in Bangkok before you can apply for your Non-B (Penang required this - the original too) and this took 3 months to get.

Then got my Non-B, then applied for the work permit - another 3 months. Total = 6 months. You are not supposed to work without a WP.

[Scott]

It is the Ministry of Education that writes the letter to request the visa. At that point it has nothing to do with the Teacher's Council of Thailand. The initial application to the TCT, would be for a waiver, since applicants need to take the Thai Culture Course. Even if you are licensed teacher in your own country, and fully eligible for a Teacher's License in Thailand, applicants start with the waiver.

[Somtamnication]

Been teaching here for over 10 years. Never seen any MOE letter for mua. At my school, I still make the same per hour as I did 10 years ago.

The only reason for me allowing them to treat me like shit is..........work permit. It is the only way for me to support, stay and live with my family. There is no other way. My hands are tied. Nope, do not have the 800k for three months for the retirement visa.

I like teaching, most of my students are nice and their English version of Onet is passable, far higher scores than before. That is the only credit I am prepared to take.

Good article, but living in an illogical society, those ideas will go nowhere.

[culicine]

If there is a Thai contract and an English contract, the Thai contract is the legal one in the country.

And one needs to be certain it has the same contents. At my last school, many years ago. Teachers were paid cash in hand. At visa time, the Thai contract given to immigration had a very low salary written - to avoid paying taxes. We were not aware of this until later. Immigration still processed this though. This was not in BKK, and 12 years ago, though.

[TerryLH]

"I have never heard of a pre-approved Work Permit."

It's routine here. The way it works is that you apply for the WP. The Labor Office looks at the app and gives you a form, WP3 I think it is.

You take that form with all your other documents and apply for a visa. The WP3 shows the consulate that a WP has been applied for and will be issued once the person gets the visa.

After issue of the visa the person returns to the Labor Office and picks up their work permit.

[Somtamnication]

Yes, but you are still not allowed to work until you get the blue book. It is ok for the visa, but not to show up at work. That is a huge misconception about the wp3 and one that employers abuse to no end.