CLA: Council of Labor Affairs. In Taipei it’s actually the Labor Department of the City Government. Michael Yeh: 02 2550 2151 ext 206
Their job is to ensure that people don’t fuck each other over. I know several people from both sides of the equation who have gone to them, sometimes because someone was being naughty, other times simply to find out what was the right thing to do.
If you call to complain they will ask you to fax in a statement of your problem. No required form, just a letter outlining the situation. Then they contact the other party, who may then come back to you and try to settle without any further fuss. If that doesn’t work then they arrange an arbitration hearing, which means both sides sit down at a table with an arbitration officer who knows the law and you try to come to an agreement. It will take a few weeks to get this far, maybe a month.
This service is free, confidential, and you don’t need a lawyer.
If you can’t reach an agreement, or if the other party doesn’t keep the agreement, then you may consider sueing. In Taipei you want the court on Boai Rd. (There was a thread about this a while back and Dragonbones will be the man to ask.) The court officers will recommend you try arbitration first, so the CLA is the first step, but if you get no joy then legal action is still possible. You can download the forms from somewhere, but everything’s in Chinese and I can’t find them. I do have copies at home somewhere though, as I went through this recently.
In your case, a call to the CLA for information in advance would probably clarify what your rights are and what procedure you should follow to quit your job. They can advise you about how much notice you’re entitled to if your boss decides to fire you instantly. You may try asking them to contact your employer just to confirm that he understands that you’re doing it by the book and expect him to do the same. I wouldn’t do this unless I had forewarned my employer though.
If your boss decides you don’t need to come in tomorrow, which happened to me once, aside from the issue of pay there is also the issue of your work permit. Once you stop working there you have ten days to get another one or leave the country. If he’s required to give you any notice (I don’t know the rules) then insist the ten days starts after the notice period, not from the day he kicks you out.
I’ve pulled the CLA card twice in over five years. The first time, which sounds similar to your situation, they were playing the “so sue me from Hong Kong” game but buckled when I discovered the free, binding alternative. They didn’t want any attention from the authorities whatsoever, so I got paid notice and a written notice of termination stating the agreed payoff and confirming in writing that there would be no future difficulties from them with regards to my work status. A year later I had to go back and claim a refund of the taxes they had deducted for me but never paid, so you might like to include that issue in your negotiations too.
Have fun with it, and remember to be nice. The rule of law actually works quite well in Taiwan, the only problem is that some individuals aren’t aware of that fact yet and think they can play silly buggers. You just need to straighten them out and correct their misunderstandings, and everything will be fine. No need for big dramas, threats, or name calling.
(please don’t tell me how lucky I am to see so much of the metro Taipei area from the window of a bus - it’s been done before and it did not make me feel better)