Hi,
I’m working for a company that has a contract seemingly to screw the teachers. I signed it, as I wanted the job, and now they’re sending little “updates” and “notices.” I presume the latest overrules the prior ones? Each notice comes with a mini contract which we have to resign.
The contract says “The teacher is required to follow all RoC laws, company rules and teaching policies. If the teacher is lacking in effort and fails to achieve the standard teaching requirements, the company reserves the right to terminate the teacher’s appointed hours.”
Sounds fair enough.
The company rules and policies are where it gets disturbing however.
- The teacher must use the company value and only the company material.
- the company material has very little educational material. It has no syllabus, no coherency, and not even any obvious indication of exactly what the students are supposed to learn. There are no sentence patterns or practice sheets or workbooks.
- Many of the students are unhappy with the material, and complain about it.
- Be passionate and welcoming to the students. The company reserves the right to terminate the class if complaints are received from students, which are alarming or a cause for concern.
- note the complaints aren’t required to be put into context or even verified
- nor would the teacher be told who was complaining and permitted to discuss the issue with the student
- nor is there any indication of what might be “alarming” or “cause for concern”. Is it cause for concern if I am not passionate enough to the students, or too passionate?
- If the teacher’s methods are lacking in effort the company reserves the right to terminate the class.
- Who judges this? Well, students complain to the secretaries and they make the call. There are never any peer reviews, or observations by qualified teachers.
- The teacher has to arrive early for “class preparation” and to begin on time.
- The company lacks printers and is loathe to waste precious NT on photocopying and thus makes it difficult to produce worksheets or crossword puzzles or, heck, anything to make the class more interesting. This wastes my free time and will cause less class prep as I would then have less time to access printer shops where I can prepare material.
So, what would happen if my classes got terminated because I was using the company material and students complained that the class was boring and they weren’t learning anything? We have an impossible job - take terrible material and “make it interesting” and “teach them something” with no resources. How would the CLA view this? All I can see in the Labor Standards Act is the employee must obey the company rules and regulations. But what if the rules and regulations make it impossible to do the job?
Should I make little notations in the notice, pointing out the concerns in case this ever saw the light of day in court? Or should I just shut up, keep my head down, and not make waves?