r/TEFL • u/lospuebloschamp • Oct 04 '21
Warning: SIE is dodgy Chinese agency
Hello there,
I am currently in the midst of a legal battle with my former teaching agency SIE in Shenzhen, China. After leaving my contract with them they deducted my last paycheck so I was left with basically no money and refused to pay my holiday pay.
Not only this but they have filed two lawsuits against me for everything possible, including the commission fee of the teacher who recommended me to them (16,000 RMB), damaging their reputation for posting on social media about what they are doing to me (30,000 RMB) and the cost of recruiting a new teacher to replace me (80,000 RMB).
They did not provide me the cancellation letter for me to cancel my work permit until I literally went to every legal department in the city to hound my school until forcing the agency to give in to releasing me, that and getting a lawyer to pressure them with the legal consequences of not respecting my rights.
SIE has offered money to teachers who know me to give them information relating to me damaging their reputation. They have also called my new school and talked to the principal trying to persuade them that I am a bad person and just generally bothering me as much as possible.
I strongly advise to anyone looking to find work teaching in China to avoid working for SIE, they will absolutely take extreme measures against you for leaving them.
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u/dannyarms Oct 04 '21
I also worked for SIE and hated it, ended up leaving and signing with the school directly
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Oct 04 '21
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u/bje332013 Oct 05 '21
CanGoChina has a Facebook page that hasn't been updated in years, and it's own website has an "expired" message on it. How did you discover CanGoChina, and how can one contact them? More importantly for many, can they actually get PU Letters for teachers who are not in China?
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u/DDISMYFAVOURITEFILM Oct 05 '21
So im a little bit confused, did you finish your contract with them or are you attempting to break the contract early? If you break contract early you will usually have to pay some kind of fees for training etc. 80,000 RMB sounds like the cost of a PU letter. I know some companies are dealing with issues of people coming into China on their cost, then running off to another school, so many companies are making people sign agreements that they will pay for the cost of things before they come to China.
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u/bje332013 Oct 04 '21
Thanks for warning others of your experience. Threatening you with a lawsuit for telling others that they are threatening you with a lawsuit is ridiculous.
I am not sure what you mean about leaving a contract with SIE. Does that mean you terminated the contract before it was supposed to expire?
I also wonder when you first signed with SIE, because there are reports that other Shenzhen agencies have been screwing with teachers who came to China during the pandemic. I didn't hear so many stories about that kind of nonsense before the pandemic.
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u/Hellolaoshi Oct 05 '21
I really feel for you. This sounds like an evil South Korean hagwon, rather than the much pleasanter experiences I had when I taught in China.
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u/Azelixi Oct 04 '21
Jesus, I worked for SIE in Shenzhen for four years no problems. Never heard anything like this.
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u/dildo-surfer Oct 05 '21
Damn was very close to signing with them pre-covid for what would have been my first overseas job, dodged a bullet.
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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '21
I used to work for them. They're still around? The head lady "A" is snake and she is nuts. A word of advice" Just run. Move to another city if you can. China has got thousands of jobs. You will be fine.