Topic: news Breaking Your Contract in China: New Consequences for Pulling a “Midnight Run”

After five years with the same school as a foreign expert ending in 2009, I was told I needed a release letter, but the school wouldn't give me one. Even when I had the immigration dept and the labor dept phone them to inform them they were required to do this, they still stalled. To this day, years later, it is stilled not received, affecting my future, to say the least. Strange thing is that we left on good terms. School said if anyone phoned to ask about me, they would say good things. The main three reasons they gave for no 'release letter' were 1. That they had already given it to me--not true; 2. They didn't know how to compose it, they said--I offered to write it for them; 3. Finally, they had the tenacity to say that I was the one who was suppose to give them a letter. Although it has affected my future teaching in China, I never went beyond writing a complaint to the Eductation Department in English, which I never sent (I was afraid no one would understand). Didn't want to make trouble for the school where there were many young children present. I think the real reason was the school was trying to hide something to do with tax, as contracts fail to stipulate many details such as how many months a year one will be working, before or after tax salary, etc.