I?ll try to keep this brief. The dangers and pitfalls of working for agencies have been well documented as I?m sure readers of this forum are only too well aware. So it?s really the newbies that need to read this.
I would like to draw jobseekers? attentions to an organisation which has scant regard for the welfare of the teachers they employ, not to mention the schools with whom they contract. It is run (read owned) by a seemingly genuine native English speaker, and you would expect to be treated fairly and with the same ground rules as you might expect back home, right? Wrong!
This company is APEC in Bangkok.
1. Very brief interview- did I have a pulse? OK, you?re in!
2. No credentials necessary. (I have, but they didn?t want to see them.
They actually recommended somewhere I could get some fake ones made!)
3. Could I start straight away? Like tomorrow?
4. Sent me in a taxi to my new school (out in the boondocks).
5. No help to find a residence.
6. No syllabus.
7. No work permit.
8. Fined 2000 Baht for going to get a ?B? visa. (they prepared the paperwork for me, which was good,
but then failed to lodge for the twelve month visa.)
9. No contact from APEC apart from pay and work attendance (office staff) queries.
10. They dock 10% of your wages as a security measure.
They refused to pay me back this 10% for reasons they wouldn?t explain. (How do you explain dishonesty?)
11. One good thing about not having a work permit, and a twelve month visa,
they told me is you don?t have to pay tax!!! Some months they deducted ?Tax? anyway, just for good measure.
12. If no-one else will take you, (tattoos, nose rings, dreadlocks) you can still get a job with APEC. Why should they discriminate?
Topic: APEC CMS (Read 451 times)