Could stopping teaching on the side be punished?

[helvetus]

Hello to all,

I have been teaching French on the side ( no contract and payment in cash) in a private institute in Wuhan, in addition to a legal teaching job in an university, for one month. I decided to stop teaching in this place for different reasons but they are now threatening me that they will cause me « big problems ». Are they bluffing or could they really cause problems ?

As far as I know teaching under the table is illegal not only for the employee but for the employer too !

[BrandeX]

yes it is a large fine for employers, smaller for illegal employees. They are bluffing, you can offer to go to the police yourself, see what their response is.

[fireball9261]

Be very careful what you do. Some of these guys might have certain connections -- they all do. They might not be able to cause you "big trouble" in legal ways, but they might be able to cause you trouble in small or illegal ways. You need to find out what kind of connections they have from other employees and students and locals (like nearby street vendors or close by businessmen -- It's very important to be nice to them because they would be very good sources of information) before you formulate your responses to them. Otherwise, you might really get major troubles because you are not a local person there.

If they really don't have any connections with someone who are important or scary enough -- no policeman, judge, important (as in important to your everyday lives, not important in the actual position) persons in the local government or local mafia or gang member connections, you can threaten to go to police. Also, if they have reacted like they don't care after you said so, you REALLY need to find out who they are connected to!!!

[simonlaing]

I think that their power would be limited to their connection power.

If you were a full time student and were working illegally on a student visa there could be more problems for you as you would have infringed on your visa.

Since you were paid in Cash and had not contract there is no hard evidence that you broke your contract or did anything out of the ordinary.

Your School contract provides your visa and as long as that is legal you shouldn't worry about them talking to police too much. The first question they will ask this school is how come you were hiring a foreigner if you don't even have the authority to do this.

It would cause them more issues pursuing it than it would to you.

(A couple of years a go, some school in the suburbs of nanjing was using caucasian eastern europeans as teachers and made a TV Ad about it. This was investigated and the teachers were given a warning they would be deported if they worked again, the school was shut down for a short time , like a month or so.) So be careful about working if you're on a student visa.

good luck,

SimoN:)

[self-taught-mba]

Hired thugs are cheap. Ask some Chinese whether or not to fight with a real-estate company for example. Even business people said there is a high probability they would hire someone to come after me. Our former assistant worked at a company that apparently had hired some help to help deal with difficult customers.

Mouth off at your own risk. Better to make excuses - afraid to get in trouble with current employer/gov't, overworked, etc.

[fireball9261]

I agree with self-taught-mba. In Chinese society, it is much better NOT to offend people because you don't know what would be the consequences. I am a Chinese, but I will NOT offend people in a location that I am NOT familiar with and with people I don't know at all (please don't tell me that you know them because you have worked with them for a few months or even a few years, because you would NOT know them if they don't want to let you know even if you know them for 10 or 20 or even 30 years in Asia.) Anyway, if you are in a Western styled nation, you would be OK. However, China and Chinese society is NOT a Western styled environment. I would NOT offend people in Hong Kong or Taiwan or Singapore or any of the Asian nations either -- no matter how westernized they seemed to be!!!

[ChineseOtto]

Friends who work in the local visa office can cancle visas and local police can usually be paid to make house calls and cause trouble! I AM NIT SAYING TO GIVE IN TO THE PROBLEM!

The best way to hadle this is to find out where the local branch of the "State Bureau of Foreign Experts" is located and go talk to them. Every major city has an office. The can help with all this!

I agree with the above, if there is not contract then what are you "breaking"... Just be causious in confrentation with a major business or university. You can't know where they have friends or who the friends may know.

Best of luck and let us know how it turns out!

[ChineseOtto]

I agree that a lot of major businesses and universities probably have connections and "guanxi" that could make things difficult if you are not careful.

However, if you are already planning on leaving for other reasons, then go with it! Your best bet then is to go to the local office of "The Bureau of Foreign Experts" (the ones that give you a working certificate) and talk to them. Every major city has one of these offices! They can help a lot with these kinds of things and are usually very honest about all of their work!

Try to find out about that office and start there. Also, have you just sat down and talked to the university officials to explain things? It could just be that simple! If you do this (and you don't speak Chinese) I would bring your own translator, so you know that your message isn't getting "sweetened up" by someone who already works for the university.

Let us know what happens... BEST OF LUCK!!!