In response to James’ two letters on the 25th November, I really could not believe what I read. I had to take 24 hours just too cool down. Are we working in Stalin’s Gulags? Is the job of a teacher worse than a soldier in the front line? Soldiers get paid at the end of the month! And according to you teachers should not get paid? I do agree that it is not ideal to come to work in Thailand without much savings, nor should one not try to save for a rainy day. However, two months without pay is around 60-70,000 baht in saved money that needs to be used (rent, relocation - to escape the floods, food etc.).

In Thailand there are teachers with family and those who get paid 15,000 baht a month (who have to spend most of the salary to survive - without even entertaining themselves). 60-70,000 baht, used from what might have taken a year or two to save, just to go back to a school that has already received the government funding (for government schools), and all fees for the allotted foreign teachers, and is not paying the teacher? Where did that money go? And they were laughing too?

Using your same logic that the teacher is to blame, I state it is the school to blame (for private schools)! Surely the rich boss should have saved up money to survive this “rainy day”? That rich boss made a ton of money off the foreign teachers before. At the end of the day, the fat cat hopes to make more from the sweat of the foreign teacher in the future too – so, keeping the workers fed and alive might just ensure they are there to contribute towards the boss’s new Mercedes.

As for Thailand not being a socialist EU style state that takes care of people, if you are legal, you pay 750 Baht a month in social insurance – yes, the foreigners pay it too (and can claim on it)  so if you pay it then you are entitled to it. There are also labour laws. However, for those that are happy to accept slavery, and your contract does sound a bit like that, then be happy as a slave – your posts indicate that you are!

Mr Grumpy