Work at BKC Moscow - Work Illegally - Get Abused - Speak Up - Get Fired

One of the biggest problems facing teachers at BKC-IH Moscow right now is the lack of legal visa support.

In a new blog by a BKC-IH Moscow teacher called BKC-IH Moscow Sucks: BKC-IH Moscow Should Be Disaffiliated With IHWO (International House), the teacher writes about the following problems that teachers face while working at his school in Podolsk, Moscow.

1. Being forced to illegally work in Russia (a dangerous situation) because BKC Moscow does not have the legal right to currently employ foreigners if their visas expire. BKC IH Moscow instructs its teachers to get "business visas," which are being used by BKC teachers to teach English in Russia, which is strictly against the law - business visas cannot be used to teach. Teachers foot the bill for the visa runs to get these visas, compensated only a fraction of what it costs to leave the country and come back with an illegal visa.

2. Lack of proper ADOS support for the teacher's curriculum.

3. Lies told by the teacher's ADOS.

4. Teachers being told by BKC-IH Moscow to lie to Russian police about where they work. (We will post more about this on an upcoming blog post.)

5. A vindictive director who stopped buying water for the office and shut down internet connections at the school for no reason.

6. Lies told to the teacher by Wayne Rimmer, the director of studies at BKC-IH Moscow.

7. Being forced out of his apartment after being illegally dismissed by BKC-IH Moscow a few weeks ago.

8. Contract violations, emails that were not responded to, and a threat from BKC-IH Moscow's Director of Studies about never being able to work for IH again.

Read the full blog here.

We will update this blog later to explain the illegal visa situation that BKC-IH Moscow is currently subjecting its teachers to, the verbal abuse that teachers are subjected to, and the contract violations and other laws that BKC Moscow is currently breaking.

We wish this gentleman the best of luck in his future pursuits and his new blog about the unethical and illegal practices of BKC-International House Moscow.

Deconstructing a BKC-IH Moscow Job Advert

McDonald's is always hiring and so is BKC-IH Moscow. We shall take the opportunity to dissect the Teach English in Moscow job advertisement running on Eslcafe.com.

"BKC – International House is one of the most respected Language Schools in Russia. Being a member of the International House World Organization our School is regularly inspected by the International House representatives to ensure maintenance of educational and welfare standards".

• BKC-International House Moscow is not a respected language school. One needs only to look at blogs by both teachers and students to recognize that this is hyperbole and nothing more. 
• BKC-IH Moscow is not "regularly inspected" by International House. There is no evidence that International House pays Moscow any visits. BKC-IH Moscow pays a yearly fee to International House to use the IH name brand to lend more credibility to an otherwise unsupervised school engaged in unethical and illegal activities. 

Experience: 2 years +  

• Not factual. Many teachers come to this school with no experience whatsoever.

Main Terms and Conditions of BKC Contract

• Salary: $ 1040-1160 - The salary has been lowered once again from previous years.
• Length: 8 months and 3 weeks - Untrue: your contract is actually more like 10 months when your holiday time is counted.
• Benefits: end of the contract bonus –up to US $ 1000 - The contract states that you will be paid this bonus if they feel like giving it to you. 
• Visa support - Not exactly. BKC-IH Moscow is having many problems with visas for teachers. Teachers absolutely cannot count on BKC Moscow to tell the truth about the visa situation or fairly reimburse the visa costs.
• Shared accommodation - True.
• Local transport paid by the school - True, though it comes in the form of reimbursement. 
• Airfare subsidy - True, but the amount changes. You may be told the round-trip airfare reimbursement will be $1,000 and then later in the contract, it will be changed to less than that.
• Paid holidays - Not always true
• Health care - True but perhaps not what the average person believes to be "health care".
• 50% discount for Russian classes - True. After the discount, it is approximately $90 USD monthly.
• Hourly paid positions are available as well. The rates range from $ 22-31 per academic hour. True, but as an hourly employee you are at the mercy of the Timetable ladies who may not give you enough hours to survive.

A Current BKC Moscow Teacher Proves How Stupid BKC Recruitment Is

We deliberated before deciding to publish the following text from a current BKC Moscow teacher's blog. It reveals once again the type of teacher that BKC Moscow attracts. We ultimately decided to publish this stupid teacher's writings because she wrote and used real names of some people we know. She depicts various teachers as drunks and idiots. We think she's a vacuous bore. Read the blog here.

"...my teaching position here is precarious, for various reasons including visa technicalities, Russia’s instability and shady dealings (the company that was supposed to extend my work visa has somehow or another “vanished”…) and the fact that I am, in fact, kind of a lousy teacher.  I’m much more interested in getting my students to teach me Russian terms than in actually doing my job ...

So I went back to sleep for three hours, blowing off my class without telling anyone. Fortunately, I don’t think my supervisors found out, and I am still safe.

It kind of sounds like after paying for a new AIDS test, train fare, hostels, and the actual consulate fee, I’ll be the one paying BKC to work for them.  That ain’t cool, and I’m considering leaving. “I don’t have a choice,” [he] told me, and he’s been here for years, so he should know, “But you might want to think about jumping ship.”  And… ehhhn, I’m thinking about it. 

I got an email from my supervisor the other day, the one who failed me on both of my observation lessons, giving a kindly warning that it’s against my contract to go over his head and reschedule classes without getting his permission first, and will I please not do it again? 


So, I ended up sleeping in and missing my class anyway… curses.  Maybe nobody noticed.

So, my supervisor for InCompany, the section where I “missed” all of my classes except for two through all of December, was pretty pissed off at me for turning in an almost blank register.  He took me aside and gave me a very British talking-to, but I could hear the suppressed rage throbbing in his voice.  ”Make sure you fill in your register for all your classes, and let us know if the students don’t show up, ‘kay?” he said with this really tense, I-will-murder-you smile.


BKC has emailed to say that they have a way to get me my passport back by tomorrow, so I can come back to Moscow post-haste to work for them. Rrrrgh, no way, fuck you BKC, you forced me to go on holiday, and on holiday I shall remain!  

We are speechless. We are united in our stand against the evil corporation and yet we are also appalled at this "teacher" and her behavior. Why has she not been fired? We personally know a few teachers who were fired and the sole reason for the firings was that the teachers refused to kiss ass or give bribes.

Write for BKC Moscow and Make Big Money!

That is a lie. You will write for BKC Moscow and you will earn no money.

BKC Moscow is currently propositioning teachers to write for their "teacher" website, which has been defunct since oh, about 2002. 

Since BKC Moscow has such bad press from teacher blogs, not to mention the almighty ESLCafe.com, and even a mainstream magazine, they must be thinking - oh we have to get some good stories up on this Internet thing all the kids are talking about.

As our intrepid team wades through the World Wide Web (as it was known back in the day), we browsed through the old BKC Moscow teacher's site and found this interesting article written by a guy none of us recognizes.

From his musings on the article, we gather that this young man is likely whoring it up in some third world country, or otherwise financing his sex-tours.

This BKC Moscow teacher wrote about - and BKC Moscow published - the following:

• Threatening stops by the Russian police. One incident in which the Russian police put his hand on his gun to intimidate the teacher. 
• Boasting about his sexual escapades. "My second visit saw me being chatted up by a young girl who was bi-sexual. Sadly nothing exciting came of this meeting. My third visit (yes, I really like this place!) saw be being invited onto the bar come stage by a beautiful blonde and leggy stripper who undress herself, and then undressed me. Completely. Photographic evidence is available at www.HungyDuck.com if your are prepared to pay the fee for viewing."

(We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.)

• This guy also notes that he was accused of sexual harassment which was of course denied by him and laughed off by the geniuses at BKC Moscow. 
• Claimed that although the wages from BKC Moscow were "meant" to indicate a middle-class lifestyle, he could not afford a washing machine and thus washed is clothes in the tub. 

Read the entire article here

And then, after you do that, read between the lines. This is what BKC Moscow is using to ENTICE young teachers to come work for their corrupt school.. All the sex you want! Clubs! Discos! Vodka! More sex! Bisexual, trisexual, threesomes, whatever you want! Sightseeing! Look at all the buildings!

This guy didn't write much about what it was like to be an actual teacher. The article was filled with typos and grammatical errors. We are guessing that he was wasted most of the time and couldn't be bothered to do much teaching, not when his main goal seems to be getting into every club in Moscow and fucking as many girls as possible.

Read even further into it and you will see that this teacher was thoroughly convinced, as was BKC Moscow, that this article was appropriate and in fact welcomed by the ex-pat teaching community.

Become a teacher and get lots of sex and booze and police stops and pay a bunch of bribes. Oh yes and teach once in awhile. That basically sums up BKC Moscow's recruiting tools.

God bless those fools.

Dear BKC Moscow Recruitment

Originally posted on the BKC Teacher's Forum

Dear Recruitment,

Why do you continue to try to sell ADOS positions with BS like 'training-fund'? Who actually gets to smell any of this? There alway seems to some lame ass excuse to deny this to people who are contractually entitled to it. Perhaps it would be better to just tell the truth!

ADOS/Senior Teacher position means that you'll be: blamed for everything that goes wrong; without authority to improve anything; forced to attend mind-numbing meetings and seminars; over-ruled by the bitch-queen of central office over the pettiest of issues; unknown to the DOSes; forced to cover endless classes at stupid-o'clock in the middle of Bumfuck Moscow Oblast; the general dogsbody of the whole company.

But in return you can be 'trained' as an iealts examiner; get a non-existent fund; and have your very own shitty apartment in the middle of industrial wasteland; eat radioactive slop at lunchtime - and all for less than the salary of the asshole off-contract teachers who can't actually teach but were smart enough to steer well clear of this crock of shit.

Small wonder all the "adosi" are fleeing. What does this tell you? Or do you need to consult a management guru first?

An Open Letter to BKC Recruitment

Originally Posted on BKC Teacher's Forum

An open letter to Recruitment

Dear ladies,

I think it is clear to all and sundry that the whole issue of salary rates and contracts has been mishandled. Handled with all the finesse of a sledgehammer, one might say. Why this was so, is open to debate. Some say it is a cultural difference, some say it is down to the nature of the personalities in charge, while others simply do not have a rational explanation for the sheer scale of the amateurism displayed. So, if I may, let me, in all humility, enlighten you as to how such a delicate matter should have been dealt with.

First of all, more open communication and transparency would have been a good thing. A very simple, yet effective approach would have involved setting up a meeting, a crisis meeting if you will, and then informing staff of measures that needed to be taken. Just by telling teachers that because of the economic situation, BKC is not in a position to pay full salaries as stipulated in the contract - this would have cleared the air and prevented a lot of anger. Admitting that this was an extraordinary situation requiring extraordinary responses would not be a surprise to anybody.

Then, you could have offered anyone who was not happy with this situation an early, amicable termination of their contract, with pro-rata benefits etc. This would have the double advantage of empowering staff to make their own informed decisions, and allowed BKC to reduce staff in an honest, transparent way.

Next, regarding terminations, this should have been done in a transparent way too, with the rationale clear to all involved, e.g. last in first out or whatever.

Most importantly of all, if there had been a uniform position taken by all members of recruitment, a single party line, then there may have been some trust fostered. But there wasn't.

Having failed to do anything seen as even remotely fair, you have incurred the wrath of usually easy-going staff. Nobody likes it when contracts are torn up without consultation, and without regard to the law. Nobody will stay in a company where there is a secret hit-list that unfairly victimizes some members. Nobody will work without knowing what their rate of pay is, and nobody trusts a company that issues mixed signals about basic information like said rates, e.g. Bonderov says 32, Tatyana says 30.

I think if you had done things the way described above, there would not be so much ill-will and seething resentment now in our school. But the damage has been done, and there is little chance of it being healed. As for me, I believe that this is of no interest to the personalities in charge, as they simply want to thin out the staff numbers at any cost. Fair enough, but it will cost you far more than you think. Already the bad press from a few years ago is repeating itself on external forums. Your reputation is taking a nosedive. Nobody trusts a word you say anymore.