I’m thinking of taking on some extra work outside of my regular teaching gig. I already have an offer from a language school and I’m wondering what I need to ensure happens legally to keep everything legit. I’m leery of telling my new boss, “Hey, I want everything to be thoroughly legal.” As my new employer may respond with a, “Don’t worry, everything will be taken care of.” And then once things get rolling I find myself working illegally.
As the title states I have an APRC and an Open Work Permit.
I’ve looked around/searched on Forumosa and can’t find anything real relevant or recent regarding this topic (in relation to APRC holders). I would greatly appreciate any advice on what I need to do/know to be sure things are on the ‘up and up.’ Also I’m wondering if I need to notify my current employer.
Short answer: you have open work rights, so you’re fine.
Long answer:
Whether or not you should notify your current employer depends on whether or not your extra job would interfere with the loyalty you “owe” your employer. Even if it would though, you would not be committing a crime.* At worst, you would be violating a non-competition agreement (if one exists) and/or failing to focus on your main job, which could, possibly, be used as a reason to fire you.
*If you teach at a “school” (not a buxiban), then iirc the Teacher Act or some other law says you’re not allowed to moonlight at a buxiban. The penalty would probably be an administrative fine.
Although the Ministry of Labor generally looks on any job that would be called employment in western countries as employment (or at least labor), and there are precedents affirming that part-time work is no barrier to the recognition of an employment/labor relationship and that when in doubt it should be recognized, there have also been cases in which the civil courts have used the part-time aspect to deny the employment/labor relationship, regardless of what the contract says, what the labor department says, and so on. There is a real lack of consistency because the precedents are not binding, and some judges either didn’t get the memo that it’s the 21st century now or choose to ignore the memo.
This only matters if a dispute occurs between the employer (or “principal”) and employee (or “mandatary”), but it can mean the denial of your basic employment/labor rights (Civil Code Art. 482 to 489, Labor Standards Act, Labor Insurance Act, etc.).
The labor department and tax office (and the administrative courts if it came down to that) would probably not buy that line of reasoning, so don’t forget to get your tax statements and insurance premiums in order. The MOL’s 僱用部分時間工作勞工應行注意事項 Art. 8 prevents your employer from leaving you out of laobao and jiubao (if applicable) on the basis of your part-time status.
You should also read through the rest of that document for an explanation of how some rules are modified for part-time jobs.
