I’m kind of confused how you have a job in Taiwan without a bachelors, but I’m not one to care about illegally working foreigners, considering how illegally I’ve seen local businesses work. Even if you have an APRC, you can’t legally work in education if you don’t meet the qualifications that a local needs to meet.
But yeah, most businesses here do seem to complain about not having anyone apply to work for them, despite doing nothing to get anyone to even know to apply for the job. They really do rely on “knowing someone who knows someone” to a fault. I can’t begin to list the number of schools that complain to me about not having any applicants, despite never posting anywhere that they’re looking…
Who said he is working illegally? His husband is from Taiwan and he has JFRV and soon will be a Taiwan National in the next month or so. Also he does have non degree qualifications. You do not need a degree to work in Taiwan. A British woman who works in marketing also does not have a degree and got a work permit to work in Taiwan.
If you do not know how work permits are issued then don’t assume you need a degree. In many sectors high school or less and work experience is sufficient. Also some people have high school then do an apprenticeship and get work permits.
Not true. No one is required to have a degree to be a cram school teacher. Also I know JFRV APRC holders who have been teaching at high schools without a degree. They were employed privately and do not need a work permit so do not need to go through the government employment process for foreign teachers. Locals also do no need a degree to teach in a cram school.
As far as I know a degree is only needed if you want to get a visa to work as a cram school teacher, otherwise it’s up to the cram school to decide who to hire.
Or overseas student with student ARC and work permit. Non native English speakers can teach English part time as well. There are many Indonesians teaching English this way some who have IELTS 9.0 scores on all 4 parts of the test.
You say proof and you say estimate. Unless you have documented proof, I don’t think that’s going to stand up in court. If this is only about overtime pay, the Bureau of Labor should be your first stop. A lot of people have reported being able to work out at least partial reimbursement there.
And no, 40k does not sound worth it unless you need to do it out of spite.
That depends, I think. I clocked in, I clocked out. I got paid overtime automatically according to what needed to be done. I’ve never had an issue in the US about overtime at companies.
That’s true. There are times where you’re not allowed to do overtime because they count every minute, and they’re trying to save costs.
At this school, “you finish your job no matter how long it takes.” There were times cleaning the floors & wiping everything took much too long, but with my schedule, I had no choice but to stay till midnight to do it sometimes.
My boss is worried about people doing overtime and not getting enough work done, actually. That is why denial of overtime that’s already completed happens in general at this place.
I’m not sure that’s true. They said that I’m not worth the $50k I get salary, and they’re discussing “pooling overtime” to hire someone new because my boss said, “I make less money than a drink stand.” I literally get paid less than $350 NTD an hour doing 1-on-2 at this school. 90% of my hours are currently filled by students.
I have documentation of working 6 days a week & every minute recorded until recently (as I said before, I just sign a piece of paper saying I was there). When asked about my day off, I was told it’s Tuesday. Funny how I didn’t know what my day off was several months into the job. When asked about overtime, I was told it’s all included. Weird.
Well… I intend to. Lol. I’ve got plans.
I spoke to some lawyers, and they said I would win. The spoke in the wheel now is that I lost them a student who wouldn’t cooperate.
Yeah, I learned shut up and follow is the way. My coworkers said, “Now you get it.”
Maybe it was a bit unprofessional, but I can’t for the life of me scam them into thinking that their English is great because they’ve been memorizing how to test. I’m gonna leave. Very soon, in fact. Or maybe I’ll go part-time because they’re unwilling to drop me with so many students. There’s literally no one to take over, and their turnover rate is through the roof.
Really? Not feel guilty about screwing me? More reason to go to mediation then.
Good to know. I’m def. moving.
That sucks. I’m only learning this now, and that’s why I want to force their hand.
I totally agree. My coworkers are all complaining about this place, but they’re all too afraid to act. I told them I’ll act on their behalf then. They were absolutely ecstatic, lmao.
Does this mean everyone else is getting screwed but you at your job place? o.O
I’ve tried that but none of that worked so far. They all just say, “ok, we’ll discuss this again and find agreement.”
This is something I’ve been battling myself, too. I think I ultimately want more education to get something hands-on (I would love to do something technical, and I did do it in the past, but I’ve moved so much that I can’t stay in one place for financial reasons). I think it depends on the individual.
Haha, thank you!
I have barely any savings–the ones I do, I don’t want to burn for quitting. I’m lining up two other opportunities. I have a contract till the end of the year, so I will have to wait some more time. Plus I just took on a couple tutoring opportunities to help kids who really need it.
If you do it at home, you have to. It’s work. Just because you don’t doesn’t make it right not to get paid for it.
That’s just the problem! I was told that I don’t know how to teach English and that everything I know is for the books. I was told I need to force them to memorize for the test. All I’ve been told is “you’re wrong” and “your education is worthless here.”
This is false equivalence. This situation is more like “one of my teachers has been working with me for 7 years, I’m still at the elementary level, and I refuse to do any more because I really hate this teacher” followed by “another teacher told me that I can do better/more if I get a better teacher, which is exactly what I will do now. thanks for the advice.”
May happen if I try to sue for overtime that’s unpaid. That’s the plan. Maybe the boss will say “ok, sure, here’s your overtime pay, but I will deduct the $40k you owe me for giving my students the idea that they can learn English more effectively elsewhere.”
My contract also says I should leave Taiwan if I quit, and that if I want other jobs, I’m not allowed to have them. Problem is that I don’t depend on this employer for my visa, so they can’t actually force me to leave Taiwan. Makes no sense. And in terms of overtime, the contract ONLY says I can get days off. Also illegal AFAIK.
I see that now with this school. Obviously our values here don’t align.
Luckily they can’t cancel my visa if they tried because they’re not the issuer of it. Yep. Open work permit.
That was what happened with my student.
I teach them to THINK how to answer questions. I don’t teach vocabulary at all. My class is about speaking about topics of interest. THEY teach them how to memorize the answers to various topics for a test. Big difference.
And there are dozens of PhDs out there who have researched this topic with one concrete result: learning a language by memorization is not only damaging to the acquisition of a language but to using the language itself. Want me to give you a “link storm” or can you google it yourself?
That’s fine… IF they actually told me that THAT was my job. They didn’t, however.
They have no foreign teachers. They do this supposedly to please parents, and the parents are clueless idiots it seems.
I call being mislead here. That is what happened to me. I don’t care about their problems. If they weren’t upfront with me what my job duties were, it should be fair that I am left to do how I want to do it. I still use their material, but I conduct the class in a different way.
You know that’s impossible because I’d be running over-hours. It’s illegal to work 7 days a week, and working 6 days a week requires overtime pay. This is literally what the labor department told me. Btw, they don’t allow anyone to work over 8 hours because they don’t want to pay overtime for it. Their actual reason was “it’s illegal to work over 8 hours in Taiwan.”
Precisely how I feel, bro. I care about my work. No matter what, I will NOT be fired for being a poor performer. I’m OK for getting fired for other reasons. If someone asks me to do a job, I will do it to my best ability.
Interesting. Was this through mediation or something else? Meaning, was it a dispute or an investigation?
Insane, lol.
Taiwanese don’t like conflict. I see conflict as necessary. It doesn’t have to be violent. Somehow Taiwanese people equate it to being violent in their heads it appears. Why else don’t they act?
Short answer is child. Long answer is I moved to a city I shouldn’t have, and I made some mistakes with the stock market at a time that rising rates and political finger-pointing got hot. My employer knows this and is using this against me.
That’s funny because we’re always asked to stay extra at school, but we’re not paid for it. NOT ONCE did I hear the boss say that it’s time to leave. No, it was more like “yeah, go ahead get this and that done, and when you are, you can go home.”
There are high school students working here. You don’t need a degree to teach at a private school. I don’t think there’s a law for that.
What does that mean?
As I said earlier, I was literally told “you can do it at home.” On my day of convenience not long after, I did it, and I gave it to the boss. I asked for overtime. The boss then said, “ohhhh, sorry, you didn’t tell me you were gonna take them home.” Jesus F. Christ.
Lol, yeah. Exactly.
You really think so? I know my boss lies to me. I found this out when I asked, “Did you know that overtime was counted by an hour and not by the minute??” The response was “what? really??? I had no idea!!! omg!!!111”
Lol, what?
I have proof of working overtime. I have an “estimate” of how much I am owed. But because Taiwanese laws go by different hours for calculating overtime, I don’t know how much exactly I’m owed. I just know that if the base calculation is 33% more for the first two hours, and I extrapolate the hours, I will be owed roughly $100k at the end of the year with my 6th working day because I work… 6 days in a row without overtime. Government law says you have to have 4 days off a month in “break days” and four days off as “statutory leave” or religious holiday. I get 4 days off a month. Period.
I want to do graduate school. Any and all money will help me to get there IMO. I’ll take anything I can get. Plus, of my ~50 students, 99% passed their tests with high scores.
That’s not accurate. Class preparation is usually factored into teaching duties. In the states, most teachers/professors prepare classes and do marking in their off hours as well. They aren’t paid overtime for it. I teach at a uni where instructors are expected to prepare their own class plans, and if we didn’t prepare/grade outside of class time, we would all be out of the job very quickly.
I was confused by your original post in which you implied you were contracted to work six days a week normally.
It seems to me that your boss may be under the impression that they are paying you to work six days a week normally as part of your base salary. They may not even know they are required by law to give overtime pay every week for the sixth day. You may wish to clear that up with them.
It’s always best to assume that your boss is just ignorant of the law when you approach them, instead of automatically accusing them of blatantly breaking the law. Conversations usually work out better if you help them save face that way.
