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 at: eric@teflcampus.com