Beware of ALL EF English First Indonesia Schools

[RESPECT]

Warnings are rarely heeded in the ESL industry by new teachers abroad which allows ESL schools to manipulate and use foreign teachers without penalty but we suggest you heed this one:

EF English First Indonesia markets and recruits for ESL teachers all over ESL Teacher forums.

In Indonesia they have hired 1,000's of ESL teachers (qualified and unqualified) and have used ads that sell a tropical paradise, ONLY 24 hours of teaching, reimbursed airline tickets, free work permits, etc.

EF English First is a franchised school and system. In Indonesia, their corporate headquarters are in Tamara, Jakarta. Each individual franchise owner operates their schools, contracts and academics in different manners. EF generally tries to hire "NEW" teachers so that they can manipulate them into marketing machines.They don't want academic competence because it will effect their ability to manipulate academics and force students to never learn fluent english thus having to re-enroll again and again!!!$$$$

if that does not effect you than the following will:

They guarantee a salary equivalent to middle-management in Indonesia. This is BS. Middle management in Indonesia makes anywhere from 8-15 million rupiah a month. Not 4-8 million rupiah a month.

They cheat you after you sign a contract by not honoring the contractual terms for airline reimbursement.

They routinely have contracted teachers in Indonesia that have not received the proper and LEGAL KITAS work permits needed to be here and work until 6 months or longer after contract signing.

Your contract will have a pro rated financial stipulation for "cost of hiring" reimbursement that fluctuates from school to school between $1,000usd to $1500usd. If you leave your contract (for any and all reasons which would include being lied to and manipulated) they will charge you according to your time served. HINT: A KITAS Visa costs 400,000Rp($40usd).

They often change and manipulate contracts after signing, lower your salary and fire teachers without following the Laws of Indonesia which can be read and understood in English (No.39 Manpower 3) for expats.

Work times are 40 hours a week not 24 and you will be required to be on premise 40 hours a week. Don't fall for that 24 hours stuff.

Often the KITAS work permit is not a legal work permit. SEE www.expatindonesia.com to see what a LEGAL work permit looks like and the paperwork and ID cards that come with it.

WE ADVISE YOU TO USE THE UTMOST CAUTION AND JUDGEMENT BEFORE FLYING 1,000's OF MILE FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY TO WORK FOR THIS ORGANIZATION.

In Indonesia Employees are rarely represented in disputes CONSULTATION. EF appears to be able to manipulate IMMIGRATIOn, THE TAX DEPARTMENTS as well as other organizations and have avoided legal issues only because of teacher's unwillingness to outspend them fighting for their contractual rights.

Everyone knows teachers are not rich. We do this for many reasons but MONEY certainly is not one of them. EF manipulates this and knows that you won't know, understand or study your legal rights in Indonesia.

Put a stop to their game and stop selling yourself for cheap to their schools

Other schools in Indonesia (Reputable schools) pay a lot more money and respect your existence.


Thank You and Good Luck!!!

[RESPECT]

If your thinking that this was just another angry teacher, than think again.... EF just does not know where to draw the line. Perhaps we need more testimonies in order to keep "newbies" from selling themselves cheap to this organization.
__________________________________________________ ___
Please accept this as my resignation from the position of Director of Studies, effectively
immediately. You may keep any monies due to me that have not yet been paid by way of
compensation in lieu of notice.
Why am I resigning?
I have been offered a position which involves under half the hours I work at EF and for the
same money I get at EF for a full 40 hr week.
1. The new position involves no dangerous travelling.
2. The benefits, for example, holiday days paid are considerably more than EF
3. There are other reasons, largely related to the centre’s operation:
a. I was told I would be given some sort of “Parking Entitlement” voucher- I wasn’t
Despite my complaints on 3 occassions about defective lighting in the men’s WC,
nothing has been done
b. I dislike teaching children as commercial viability is more important than Academic
outcome-this is understandable as this is a business, and my views on this are entirely
personal.
c.Improvements in operation I was asked to recommend have not been maintained-for
example, keeping of class “follow on” books,
d.Of 2 photocopiers in the centre neither works correctly and one doesn’t work at all. I
have mentioned this numerous times.
e. The printer in my office does not print correctly
The method of paying part-time teachers is rather dubious, but I understand this may be
standard EF practice to calculate pay on ACH not real hours.
f.The status of the branch as a member of English First is unclear and although I have
been referred on several occassions to the Intranet, I have been told we can not access
it-surely a sign that English First is NOT interested in having this branch in its network.
g. Photocopied text books are being used in contravention of EF policy.
Originally I was asked to be a contributor to the promotion of the branch, but despite
sales meetings being held, I was excluded from them
h.I was asked to secure a full-time teacher but was not given parameters under which I
could make an offer- I made an appointment to interview a likely teacher and was only
given the details 5 minutes before the interview, and that only because I telephoned and
demanded the details, despite repeated requests for this information.
i.The offer I was to make to a full-time teacher was well below industry standards and I
am certain the teacher was being polite when he said he would “think” about it.
__________________________________________________ ___

If this is a Director of Studies than what do the teachers think?

[RESPECT]

English First Indonesia headquarters in Tamara, Jakarta thinks that this is all just going to go away. Probably thinking "no worries"..."Just the internet".

But they are dead wrong. We will saty on them like flies to dead meat. They are a manipulative organization with Americans in Senior management who continue to allow individual franchise owners twist the system and use foreign teachers as servitude employees.

Until EF English First changes their behavior towards their staff and their recruiting behavior towards teachers we will be here to remind you new recruits to cross your T's and dot your i's.

Check with the US Embassy inregards to abuses by EF reported to the embassy. For that matter check all embassies.

Thank you.

[GhostRider]

EF Swara Group in Jakarta, Indonesia is the worst company I have ever worked at. Not only do they try to make a profit business wise but also off their own employees. They will try to change your contract without any representation from a legal advisor. Whatever you do please dont work for this company. It will only cause you to live a life of hell for the next year.

[GhostRider]

By the way I forgot to mention that Gusti who is the HRD will try to manipulate you after the contract and tell you he won't give you a penny for you work because at EF they won't give you a kitas. Even if one is in process which mine was they will use it against you and say that you are working illegally. Which is the very reason I stopped working with them because I wasn't satisfied because they haven't give me my kitas and because some of the Co-Workers act like jerks and try to ruin people lives. I hope one day they get caught for they way they operate. Don't trust people at the Tanjund Duren English First. They will try to charge you for things they never paid for like me they tried to charge over 5 million rupiahs for something that cost about $45. Siska even tried to charge me over 3 million for a ticket that cost 1.7 million.

Whatever you do DONT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU LIKE WORKING FOR FREE!!!!!!!! THEY WILL ONLY SCREW WITH YOU AND CHEAT YOU LIKE THEY DO EVERYONE ELSE. By the way the management there is the least professional managers you will ever meet. NOT ONE OF THEM HAS A DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT AND HARDLY ANY EXPERIENCE IN MANAGEMENT!!!! Good luck if you decide to roll the dice with this company who are known to cheat you in every way they can!

[kellyd]

That's terrible. It's sad that those students are being ripped off in such a big way, when their family is sending them to school to learn.

[merlot]

I worked for EF in San Francisco, California. The company is all about making money, and not about education.

First of all, they advertise the school as being in San Francisco, with photos of lovely campus buildings, but the program is actually in Oakland, CA, and none of the buildings in their promotional photos are actually allowed to be used by the EF students.

We had visits from EF bigwigs who asked staff how to make EF "more sexy" so they could make more money. The program was misdirected and all complaints to the director were ignored. Staff turnover was incredibly high, and there was even a case of a student sexually harassing a staff member that was ignored.

I have also heard the EF does not require background checks on their students, so you can be teaching students who have criminal records in their native countries.

[GhostRider]

English First is the worst company on this planet!!! Stay away from this company at all cost!!!

This company will end up costing you a great deal of money. They tried to block me from getting a kitas with another company because they said I ran away and never heard from again which is the farthest thing from the truth. I even have an agreement from them stating that I resigned which was by all means "forced". They rather have an ego maniac named Will Fox work for them who think so highly of himself.

If anyone decides to work for this company be prepared to be screwed with and be lied to. Gusti, Siska and Chris are the biggest jerks on this planet and I hope they lose their jobs. I hope they can put a block on all three of them! What the heck is an Irish man teaching English when only five of the natural english speaking countries are allowed to by Indonesian Law. By the way I am taking them to court for loss wages, harassment, and for defamation of character.