Retainer Fees for Teachers

[Niko]

Teachers and Retainer Fees

Today, there are still a handful of recruiters and schools in Taiwan charging teachers upfront fees or withholding part of their salaries. These funds are then usually returned to the teacher at the completion of their contract.

So is this ethical or fair to the teacher? A difficult answer where there are 2 sides to this debate.

1. Teacher's abusing the system and their schools.
2. Schools/recruiters abusing the vulnerabilities of teachers.

IACC, a well-known recruiter of teachers in Taiwan, collects a retainer fee totalling NT$24,000 (just over US$700). This retainer fee is then fully refundable upon completion of a teacher's contract.

IACC's retainer fee is collected over the following installments:

1. NT$5,000 to be collected upon arrival in Taiwan.
2. NT$3,000 to be deducted from the 1st month’s payroll.
3. NT$8,000 to be deducted from the 2nd month’s payroll.
4. NT$8,000 to be deducted from the 3rd month’s payroll.

Whilst teachers definitely dislike such retainer fees, at times you cannot blame the school for implementing such a system.

Some schools felt in necessary to introduce this "insurance policy" due to past bad experiences with teachers. Unfortunately, some English teachers have abused the system and ruined it for the majority of ethical teachers out there.

There have been cases where English teachers go to Taiwan and use their school for a work permit, airport pickup, initial accommodation and basically with setting up their new life in Taiwan. Once settled, they would then disappear leaving both the school and students in a difficult situation.

Then there are also situations where scam schools operate for the sole purpose to rip-off their teachers.

Unfortunately, there is little solution to this problem. Some have suggested to hold onto a teacher's passport, but this too has it's problems.

The same crap goes on in Korea and there really isn't a viable solution until the authorities decide to crack down on teachers as well as schools equally for violations

Holding on to a passport is not an option as it is illegal. The only agency that can legally keep your passport is the issuing government.

EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea