corona virus & work

[TheWind]

A lot of schools are extending the "holiday period" due to the virus.  My place of employment is looking to extend it until Feb 29th.  Any ideas on what this would do to salaries for people?  My gut says they wouldn't pay, maybe just pro rate it. 

 

What are your thoughts? Have your schools said anything? 

[ChTTay]

Probably depends where you work and your contract. Have you asked your employer anything? 

[TheWind]

new employer & new contract (still need to go through orientation)  thought I'd wait a bit

 

but I also wanted to see what other schools were doing - see if there is some sort of standard procedure or something

[ChTTay]

For English language training centres probably just luck of the draw. If they’ve delayed everything, including Your orientation, then I’d guess they’d try and avoid paying you anything. Best to ask them and see what they say.
 

If you’ve signed a contract from “x” date then you could try and use that. I’d be careful how you go about it though as you don’t want to have problems before you even start. You could explain you’ve only got enough money sorted to last within the original time scale between arrival and starting. If they push the date out you’ll run out etc etc 

[carlo]

Have a look at this: https://www.chinalawblog.com/2020/01/breaking-news-china-issues-new-employment-rules-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus.html

[TheWind]

20 minutes ago, carlo said:

Have a look at this

Yeah, I gave it a read yesterday.  It looks all good but as you may know a lot of businesses don't necessarily abide by the law here, especially in regards to foreigners. 

 

Generally speaking I feel pretty good about this place  since it's a large international School, but I just wanted to see if other people have started having these conversations with their employer and what kind of responses were received

[mackie1402]

21 minutes ago, TheWind said:

as you may know a lot of businesses don't necessarily abide by the law here, especially in regards to foreigners. 

 

This entirely depends on whether the foreigners are working legally or not...

 

If you have a contract on a working visa, you're pretty safe (most of the time).

[roddy]

Some places might simply not be able to pay you, this is going to wreak havoc with cashflows. All you can really do is get in touch, tell them what you're thinking (or your opening negotiating position) and see what they say. That could range from "I'm just going to look for a job in Japan if you don't pay me" to "I really want the job, but I can't afford to not be working, what can we do?" They may also be putting online options in place so you can offer to do that. Or say you'll put hours in doing lesson plans or something. 

[ChTTay]

6 hours ago, TheWind said:

since it's a large international School,

Most large international schools in Beijing are doing virtual lessons online from their original Post-CNY start of term dates. In this way, you’d get paid normally, wouldn’t have to work extra in summer and students still study. If you’re in China already then I’d expect them to pay you your salary based on your contract.