Successful Release + Cancellation Letter

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Successful Case 22
Release & Cancellation Letter

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I was approached by a South African couple, Obi and Fifi in late November. The couple worked for primary schools in Hangzhou, and the thing that they had in common was that their contracts were signed with an agency.

Their work permits were registered under the school that they were working for, so dear readers, if you work for an agency and they send you out to schools, be very careful here. That is illegal. You can only work at the address stated on your work permit.

Obi and Fifi wanted to leave and work together in a new city, but they had their worries. A lot of unethical employers would penalise you at least one months salary, or the expenses they spent getting you in China. If you refuse to pay, they will refuse to give you your release letter and cancellation letter. Without these two documents, you will NOT be able to seek further employment anywhere in China. These two documents are extremely important and essential. Obviously this is illegal but it is very widely done anyways.

If we enter such a situation, we will have to either sue the employer in labour arbitration, which is a court designed for labour disputes, or file for a labour supervision complaint. Labour arbitration usually takes 2 months, while labour supervision takes around 1 week. However, most labour supervision brigades believe that work permit cancellation issues are not within their jurisdiction, and just getting a release letter is not worth their time, so luck also plays an important factor here. Usually speaking, if you have other disputes like unpaid salaries or severance pay, they will be more willing to accept the complaint and help you solve the problem. That is again, not guaranteed either. I have seen brigades just blatantly tell my team up front that they don't want to bother at all, and we should solve this in arbitration instead.

Therefore, Obi and Fifi wanted me to guide them through the process of leaving peacefully without paying any penalties and release document trouble.

I found out that their social insurance had not been paid for, so I decided to go down the same route that I have been using many times - to terminate the contract based on social insurance not paid, and sue for severance pay plus release documents.

Everything then played out the way we wanted it to and we were able to negotiate a smooth release and transition. Obi and Fifi got their release letters, cancellation letters and work experience letters.