People are easily intimidated by Hess, and that’s what Hess relies on because it’s all it has.
I didn’t pay the Hess fine when I quit. Sure, they tried to intimidate me on a number of occasions in a number of different ways. It worked on some people I knew, who lost sleep over it, but I treated the whole thing like a game from the outset and I think I approached it in the right way.
Hess isn’t allowed to fine you up front though. If they do, you can go to the CLA and insist that they follow Article 26 of the Labor Standards Act:
“An employer shall not make any advance deduction of wages as punitive damages or indemnity.” They will pay you back because the CLA will come down heavily on them if they continue to break the law.
Hess had to return the money they fined me. It was then up to them to try to get that money back from me.
Of course, they will threaten to take you to court. If you bow to their pressure or you let it get that far then you haven’t fought correctly. The object is not to win, but in classic guerrilla fashion, to make it so expensive for them to win that it’s not worth them winning.
I ignored their letters or e-mails or stalled them, forcing them to send more, thus allocating more resources to my problem.
I took them to meetings with the CLA, during which they had three people (one of whom was a lawyer, I think) present, who had to travel from Taipei. Thus, I tied up more of their resources. I threatened further meetings and mediations, which would have tied up even more of their resources. For example, I threatened to take them before the CLA for unpaid overtime for all the extra hours they made me work outside of teaching hours. Would I have won? That’s not the relevant question. The relevant question is how much, in a best case scenario (where they won), would it have cost them just to get to the mediation to make me lose?
If necessary, you could go to the press. Writing letters to newspapers alone would force them to tie up even more resources in their attempts to restore their “good name” (and I use that term very loosely). Of course, why only do that when you could get some muck raking journalist to do an expose on how foreigners come here (and leave their friends and families behind and often take a pay cut in the process compared to back home) to help the Taiwanese improve their English, their economy, engage in culture exchange, etc. (lay what a benevolent bunch we are on with a shovel) only to be treated so badly, and really send them into damage control? If they insist on taking advantage of naive newbies, then make them lose as much face as possible for that – big companies have the resources to bludgen you into submission in the end, but they also risk sullying their reputation in the process, and reputation is twice as important here.
I know in my case they had at least five people dealing with this problem (and probably a lot more), and in the end, they probably realised I could string them along for a very long time with virtually no cost to myself, regardless of who might actually win in court (which, again, would cost them yet more resources and there would always be the risk of the media getting involved in that too). As such, I haven’t heard from them in months now.
Don’t get emotional, and don’t let them intimidate you: bleed them until they can’t afford to win.