Breaking contract with STIFF penalty

I’m not sure if you are making the right choice here. You are risking yourselves even more by giving this demo and what are you getting in return? :idunno:

Teaching physically outside the buxiban is not necessarily a work permit violation. It becomes a violation when the physical location is a separate educational business entity, even if the owner is the same. So your buxiban can send you to do corporate English training in some random office in some random building, but only if the office is not registered as a buxiban or other educational business entity.

This has been stated in an official 函 from the MOL, which I’ll try to look up later.

Doubtful indeed. They may have run it by a lawyer who said it was kosher, not realizing that they were planning to use it to get around the MOL’s rules for foreigners. Even if the lawyer knew about that part, some people just don’t know how the law works when foreigners are involved, because they normally don’t need to deal with such things.

Regarding LSA Art. 14, according to civil court judgement 臺灣臺南地方法院105年勞簡上字第7號, ongoing failure to perform compulsory insurance registrations is sufficient for Art. 14 to be invoked. (For most foreigners there’s only labor insurance aka laobao, not employment insurance aka jiubao.)

JY’s database of court decisions: https://law.judicial.gov.tw

While we’re at it, the CLA/MOL 函 stating the 1 or more rule for laobao is 103年6月27日勞動保2字第1030140226號函. This can be found on the BLI’s website (https://www.bli.gov.tw/) and should be available on the MOL’s website as well, in the legal section (勞動部勞動法令查詢系統-最新動態).

Ultimately, and perhaps we were wrong, but we decided the risk was very minimal and our boss was convinced it was legal so in an attempt to invoke article 14 over the issue risked bringing up that we had already done such events/ taught some classes at the school. And risk a boss who, after losing face in front of all the parents when his English teachers didn’t show up for the expected demo, was out for blood.

Idk, I’m very frustrated and lost in this whole situation.

On this note, we reached out to the labor hotline (1955) who were not particularly helpful and instead directed us to a number they said was for foreign white collar workers (0800 024 111). The women who answered this call said it was a general information line and she wasn’t able to answer any of our questions. There’s a local labor consultation for foreigners but we’re (clearly) in an area where they probably have very little experience dealing with the issues of English teachers (primarily home health aides). We reached out to the legal aid foundation in Taipei but they only provide face-to-face consultations and aren’t sure if anyone in the branch local to where we are speaks English. They’re calling us back later this morning after they inquire.

So that’s where we are. We’re feeling fairly rattled, especially after our yelling boss experience Friday night. If anyone has other concrete suggestions or assistance to offer please (please please says my girlfiend) send me a pm :heart:

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An unsolicited update for the good people of Forumosa:

No one at our local Legal Aid Foundation speaks much English but they arranged for a skype call with an English speaking lawyer from a different branch. The lawyer helpfully confirmed everything that’s been said here is correct. She recommended that we have grounds to terminate under Article 14.5/6 (the stipulation that the penalty be withheld from our wages violates Article 14.5 and the rest of the contract also has multiple violations invoking Article 14.6). Moreover, the 3 months stipulation runs contrary to the Article 15 notification requirements anyway. The office helped us file a dispute with the labor board. The local government office is currently trying to explain the illegal contract provisions to our boss. We’ll know by Monday if he still wants to proceed to mediation.

Before we filed the dispute we tried to reason with our boss 1 last time that we leave at the end of the month with our full September paycheck ( 好聚好散 etc). His first request that we stay a few more days, turned into a ‘stay an indeterminate period of time until we find a 2nd teacher’, and finally ‘if we mediate this and win you can’t leave until February’. My girlfriend wonders if anyone has a recommendation for a neurologist because “something is clearly wrong with this dude’s brain”.

Also, they apparently hired one poor sap who they intended to share the 2nd bedroom of our accommodation (complete with a broken bed held up by decade old textbooks, furniture we borrowed from unused classrooms, and no AC) without informing us. How they think that gives their new teacher a good first impression of the school, idk.

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It’s just standard OP for many Taiwanese business owners. Screw people over, cut corners, blame everyone else, deny, deny, deny. They do this with foreigners as well as locals. The only difference is that locals know more about it and are probably better at avoiding it (sometimes).

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This is one of the grossest, most unethical buxibans I’ve ever read about. Please write about this school in the blacklist thread, so people know to stay away from it. Sorry for your shit luck, bud. Better luck next time.

How much does the regulatory environment and the lawsuit culture (to the extent you think it exists) play a role in this type of behavior?

As far as the regulatory environment is concerned, the issue is lack of enforcement. I don’t really know how common it is for cram school owners to pay bribes although I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens. It might also depend on the location of the school. My school, as far as I know, has rarely been inspected. When it was, they were fined for a bunch of violations. The owner was pissed of course and claimed that another school in the area had ratted him out. No honor amongst thieves. Needless to say, as soon as the inspection was over, he and staff just put all the shit back that they were fined for. Blocking a fire escape, serving food to kids even though that is illegal, and some other crap. They just don’t care. Sort of like the way people drive here. Run through red lights with kids on the scooter without helmets and smile. Park your car anywhere and not give a :banana: if it’s blocking traffic or pedestrians.

My boss was sued once for screwing a local over. I think he has become a bit more careful but is still screwing people over. I was lucky. I showed up when he really needed me and things just worked out. I do know that he doesn’t declare my full income to the NIH and department of labor. He doesn’t know and I’ll just keep that just Incase something happens and then I’ll pay them a friendly visit. The fines can be pretty heavy.

Skirting the law and cutting corners is an art that these kinds of bosses have perfected for a long time. In some ways Taiwan is still very much a developing country. Even though the rule of law is supposed be the way things happen here, ruling by power is still very much a common practice. It is changing though. Slowly but surely new generations of people are pushing the old guard out of the way.

[ed.]

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@lateforthesky, any updates on the situation with your crazy boss?

Someone (labor office? Legal aid foundation lawyer?) gave him a call to lecture him on the law. He signed an official resignation notice, agreeing to give us full pay/ tax documents/ termination letter next Friday morning before our last classes. The termination letter will be dated Sept 29 so we have extra time to apply for an arc extension and legally stick around until our Oct. 15 departure from the country.

When our 10 minute meeting Tuesday started turning into an hour long meeting (our boss tried to nickle and dime us for assorted little things), my girlfriend may have suggested to him we try to collect severance indeed and left the room while he called a lawyer to complain for 10 minutes (no exaggeration) about our refusal to fix his rusting bikes we didn’t actually use.

But he hasn’t indicated he’s saving any nasty surprises for us. Seems like all might end well. I think she still plans on reporting the labor standard act violations in hopes of maybe saving someone else from this lousy contract. You all have been super helpful and the legal aid foundation are angels.

Now we’re just trying to figure out thetax refund situation before leaving and looking forward to actually seeing Taiwan outside of our isolated corner before heading home. That and trying to teach a new class of fresh 3 year old 小班 bond students they decided to start bussing down the block from the kindergarten this week…

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Nice. Glad things worked out! :+1: I love a happy ending, especially when it involves a shady buxiban owner getting his comeuppance.

So are you all done with Taiwan? Not going to give it another shot?

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Also glad to hear it worked out. Sadly, these things happen too often, but Taiwan actually does a good job of setting up support structures for workers. Great to see the legal aid foundation helping and the labor bureau taking proper steps.

Not sure. We’ll revisit that question after we’ve had some space to reflect on this experience. I’d definitely consider it if I could find a high school or university position (I have a subject-specific M.A. and university teaching experience in the U.S.). The dancing monkey/ babysitter role is one neither of us want to play again. Ending up at this particular school was clearly a lapse in judgement.

We’ll both probably apply for a huayu scholarship next season.

Dude, you have a Masters and you ended up at the worst buxiban I’ve ever read about? Do you need a life coach or something?

In all seriousness, yes you could get a uni position, especially if your Masters is related to education.

I think Jackie Harris is available. :slight_smile:
Jackie%20Harris%20you%20tell%20them

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A belated final update – we enjoyed our last couple weeks in Taiwan without incident. We never saw our boss again after that last conversation. As requested, our manager gave us our final salary in full, tax documents (with correct earnings), and contract cancellation letters before our last afternoon of classes and came to bid us farewell (and collect our keys) when we left.

When went to the tax office before leaving, we learned we didn’t actually have all the documents we needed. The clerk told us he’d contact our manager for the documents and finish filling out our tax forms for us. He gave us the receipt from the bottom of the form, though.

We are looking at returning to Taiwan. Any advice on how to handle this buxiban experience on my resume and with hiring managers? List it on my resume and explain the early contract termination in a cover letter/ interview?

Ha, maybe. I thought I wanted to be an academic in my early 20s. Started a fully-funded program, hit medical hurdles that resulted in major surgery, had a change of heart, took the MA and hopped off the American academia train. And there’s my life story. My Masters is not related to education, but I do have some university teaching experience. I’ll take a look in that direction and shy away from sketchy buxibans in the future.

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I’d keep it off your resume. They won’t believe your story, they’ll just hear “termination.” Normally I wouldn’t suggest this, but you could lie and say you were working at a cram school in the US or another Asian country. They’d probably be too lazy to check on that due to language barrier and distance and just take your word for it. It’s a risk. But the chance you getting caught out on that is lower than the chance of you getting rejected due to having your last contract terminated early.

Keeping your resume concise is one thing. Providing false information is another. :balance_scale: :yin_yang: :2cents:

Don’t forget LSA Art. 12 Par. 1 Subpar. 1:

The translation of that last part is a little off. 虞 doesn’t indicate a requirement for harm to have occurred; it means there is fear or anxiety that harm will occur. It’s the same 虞 as in Art. 14 Par. 1 Subpar. 6,

If the subject of what you did before in Taiwan comes up, a good employer will understand that there are dodgy employers out there.

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