So I just met someone this past weekend who teaches English less than 10 hrs a week. However, she has both a work permit and ARC (she is not married to a Taiwanese person, or anyone for that matter) I could hardly believe her since I know there is both a 14 hr/week minimum and a certain pay bracket one must be in, but she showed me, and right there on her ARC was her employer’s name.
I also have seen a number of ads on tealit for jobs only offering around 7 hours a week…yet they sponsor someone’s ARC.
So I am guessing this is totally illegal, but I am wondering 1. how do they get away with it and 2. has anyone heard of the sh*t ever hitting the fan in one of these cases?
I can’t confidently answer the OP’s questions, but this English translation of the pertinent part of Article 42 of “Qualifications and Criteria Standards for Foreigners Undertaking the Jobs Specified Under Article 46.1.1 to 46.1.6 of the Employment Service Act,” taken from the CLA’s website, says:
[quote=“tomthorne”]1. School simply declares that the employee is working 14 hours.
2. No, but the person you met probably shouldn’t go round bragging about it.[/quote]
And the teacher will be getting taxed on those 14 hours. That could be expensive for her come tax time.
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“tomthorne”]1. School simply declares that the employee is working 14 hours.
2. No, but the person you met probably shouldn’t go round bragging about it.[/quote]
And the teacher will be getting taxed on those 14 hours. That could be expensive for her come tax time.[/quote]
I didn’t think about that as most of the time the laobans under declare teaching hours.
And, of course, if she’s really daft she’ll then argue the toss with the tax guys .
[quote=“sandman”][quote=“tomthorne”]1. School simply declares that the employee is working 14 hours.
2. No, but the person you met probably shouldn’t go round bragging about it.[/quote]
And the teacher will be getting taxed on those 14 hours. That could be expensive for her come tax time.[/quote]
I was in this kind of situation when I got my first ARC. They gave me something like 5 hours, and claimed they’d find classes for me later (yeah right), but they’d just tell the government I had 14 hours for now.
I was worried about what would happen come tax time, but actually I was only taxed for the hours I worked. No problem.
[quote=“TaiwanVisitor12321”][quote=“sandman”][quote=“tomthorne”]1. School simply declares that the employee is working 14 hours.
2. No, but the person you met probably shouldn’t go round bragging about it.[/quote]
And the teacher will be getting taxed on those 14 hours. That could be expensive for her come tax time.[/quote]
I was in this kind of situation when I got my first ARC. They gave me something like 5 hours, and claimed they’d find classes for me later (yeah right), but they’d just tell the government I had 14 hours for now.
I was worried about what would happen come tax time, but actually I was only taxed for the hours I worked. No problem.
Still, it’s not a good situation.[/quote]
Did you end up getting more hours or teaching work elsewhere/at another school?? Is this under 14 hours thing happening more in the past year+?
[quote=“Jialin”][quote=“TaiwanVisitor12321”][quote=“sandman”][quote=“tomthorne”]1. School simply declares that the employee is working 14 hours.
2. No, but the person you met probably shouldn’t go round bragging about it.[/quote]
And the teacher will be getting taxed on those 14 hours. That could be expensive for her come tax time.[/quote]
I was in this kind of situation when I got my first ARC. They gave me something like 5 hours, and claimed they’d find classes for me later (yeah right), but they’d just tell the government I had 14 hours for now.
I was worried about what would happen come tax time, but actually I was only taxed for the hours I worked. No problem.
Still, it’s not a good situation.[/quote]
Did you end up getting more hours or teaching work elsewhere/at another school?? Is this under 14 hours thing happening more in the past year+?[/quote]
That school was weird, and it took sometimes up to a month to get the boss to reply to emails, I don’t know what was going on with them. Eventually I just got sick of their bullshit and found a new ARC elsewhere.
Question regarding work ARCS’s and hours. I’ve been teaching for a school now for almost 10 months. Of those 10 months I believe there were a whole 2 months where I received at least 14 hours. The other months were a mix of anywhere from 4-12 week hours. I didn’t ask questions about how they justified it then, however now they are trying to strong arm me into more hours, stating I have to take at least 6 a week to keep my ARC. Since the hours were shit before I’ve since found employment via a U.S firm and don’t need the teaching anymore except for the ARC. My question is, since I have copies of my pay stubs/teaching schedules for the months I did not receive the 14 hours, can use this as evidence to report the company to the government for employment infractions? Has anyone reported a school for violating the minimum hours? And if so, what were the results?
(yes i tried searching for this and could not find an answer. please spare my head should I have overlooked. cheers)
[quote=“johnniewalker”]Question regarding work ARCS’s and hours. I’ve been teaching for a school now for almost 10 months. Of those 10 months I believe there were a whole 2 months where I received at least 14 hours. The other months were a mix of anywhere from 4-12 week hours. I didn’t ask questions about how they justified it then, however now they are trying to strong arm me into more hours, stating I have to take at least 6 a week to keep my ARC. Since the hours were shit before I’ve since found employment via a U.S firm and don’t need the teaching anymore except for the ARC. My question is, since I have copies of my pay stubs/teaching schedules for the months I did not receive the 14 hours, can use this as evidence to report the company to the government for employment infractions? Has anyone reported a school for violating the minimum hours? And if so, what were the results?
(yes i tried searching for this and could not find an answer. please spare my head should I have overlooked. cheers)[/quote]
It will get messy and IMO is best avoided.
I assume you are working illegally for the US firm as they are not your employment sponsors on your ARC. It looks to me like a lose-lose situation should you take this route.
What does messy mean? You assumed incorrectly (as often happens with assumptions about people you don’t know) that I am working illegally. I am in fact working remotely for my U.S company, 100% legally. For personal reasons I have chosen to work remotely from Taiwan. So my question remains, has anyone reported an employer for ARC infractions? And if so, what were the results?
Any job you have in Taiwan needs to be connected to your ARC. You have an ARC, and work permits. You need a school to sponsor your ARC AND give you a work permit. Any other jobs need a work permit but it’s all tied to that original ARC.
Your job might be legal from the US side, but if it’s not tied to your ARC, then it’s illegal from the Taiwanese side of things.
If you report the school, you’re basically just going to get kicked out of the country. Maybe if you go get a new ARC first, you’ll be okay and you can take action against them. The government might not like your remote job though.
If you get a new ARC though, you’ll have to work 14 hours, which eats into your US job, so maybe you should be happy with the minimal teaching hours and focus on your better job, since it keeps you in Taiwan.
Thanks for the thoughtful response TaiwanVisitor. I won’t expand on my U.S job other than it has no connection whatsoever to Taiwan, other than I happen to be doing it now from Taiwan. There are thousands, perhaps millions of online jobs where legality remains in the employee and employers country. Similar to anyone who manages investments, if you’re portfolio is with an American company, you are paid in U.S dollars and file U.S taxes it is of no interest to Taiwan, and rightly so.
To report a company for breaking labor laws results in the teacher being deported? Thats messed up.
I apologise. I wasn’t having a go at you in any way. Obviously I don’t know you and can only draw conclusions from what I read in posts, that’s the nature of online forums.
“Messy” means if you make a formal complaint about your school they will fire you and cancel your work permit.
Any job you have in Taiwan needs to be connected to your ARC. You have an ARC, and work permits. You need a school to sponsor your ARC AND give you a work permit. Any other jobs need a work permit but it’s all tied to that original ARC.
Your job might be legal from the US side, but if it’s not tied to your ARC, then it’s illegal from the Taiwanese side of things.
If you report the school, you’re basically just going to get kicked out of the country. Maybe if you go get a new ARC first, you’ll be okay and you can take action against them. The government might not like your remote job though.
If you get a new ARC though, you’ll have to work 14 hours, which eats into your US job, so maybe you should be happy with the minimal teaching hours and focus on your better job, since it keeps you in Taiwan.[/quote]
Are you sure that working by computer in one’s home for a foreign company and being paid into a foreign bank is illegal? this would make every part time proofreader illegal and i know many English teachers that do that in taiwan. Even if it is illegal I think it would be nearly impossible to enforce. However johnnie shouldn’t volunteer this information to the NIA.
I don’t understand why johnniewalker wants to report the school. It sounds like the perfect match unless he wants to get more hours at the school. In addition he won’t be deported. the school might/probably will get fined but it will almost certainly cancel his ARC. If I wanted to reside in Taiwan and not work then I would want to find a job with the fewest possible hours so I could maintain an ARC and NHI. You can also get an ARC if you’re an investor but I don’t how much money is needed or how you have to invest it.
In December of last year someone asked about remote employment. [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/being-a-student-and-remote-work/69451/1 thread is here.[/url]
Cheers Tom, I understand. Abacus, you asked more questions I don’t know the answers for, it seems working remotely is a difficult topic. I believe the proofreading done is legal if it is done for a Taiwanese company that also provides an ARC OR by a foreign company (with all registration, taxes and payments occurring in that country)
Going to check out the working remotely thread now. Thanks everyone
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