What to check in a work contract?

Hello,

I am new to Taiwan, I am a chemist by profession, and I just got a job offer from a Taiwanese company. The job seems interesting and the company seems serious, still, as on Monday I might get the contract, I would like to ask to you more experienced people: what are the things I should be looking for, or make sure are (or are not) there?
They have already told me that for leave and overtime they “follow current Taiwanese law”, but are there things that I should ask to have specifically written down?
Thank you all in advance for your advices!

First thing I would check is Google and the search function on this forum.

First I’d google the company and see what other employees say about it (I guess that’s harder for a pharmacy or chemical company than a teaching academy). Then I’d see (in order of importance) monthly pay, days off per year, whether they have health coverage, other benefits and perks, and finally make sure there’s no weasel words or shady hidden clauses in the contract. Good luck!

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In addition to reading old threads or asking specific questions here, you can take the contract to the labor department (at City Hall) and ask them if there’s anything dodgy about it.

If your potential job is covered by the Labor Standards Act, and the potential employer has 30+ employees, there will be “work rules” in addition to the contract. (A smaller employer can also choose to have formal work rules.) These rules may contain more information about the work conditions than the contract itself.

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Thank you for the replies!
I googled the company, but there are no reviews in English (I know they do not have many foreigners working for them).
Are they supposed to give me a copy of these work rules with the contract, or am I supposed to ask for it? I found on some lawyers’ websites that these should be indicated on the contract, but I did not find this mentioned on the English version of the Labour’s Act…

If they allow you to take the contract, pre-signed, off the premises. I guess if they are that shady, then look elsewhere. Many buxibans are like that.

  1. What do you mean, pre-signed?
  2. How is it shady to give the other party time to review the contract before signing?

Oy. Pre-signed = unsigned.

Shady by not letting the copy of the contract leave unsigned.

Buxibans are like that. William School was like that. My wife, similarly, wanted to take it to the labor/health folks. The company admin was like, NO. My wife wanted to see the contract, and I handed it to her. It was removed from her hands.

The wording of your original post was a little unclear, but yes, that would be shady. :male_detective:

3 posts were split to a new topic: It’s not what it sounds like