So, I don’t have extensive experience working in Taiwan and this is my first time working at a buxiban, so I am not sure what is standard practice at these places.
I have been working at this buxiban for almost a month. They say they don’t usually ‘do contracts’ and, after me insisting on signing one, they made me sign a short contract in English (which I am sure has no legal validity whatsoever), more to appease me than for anything else. They also said they don’t pay wages into a bank account but in cash. They did say, however, I will get payslips or something of the sort and showed me a breakdown of the tax I will pay, which included tax, labour insurance and health insurance.
However, when I asked when I would be getting my health insurance card they were extremely vague (and somewhat dodgy) about it and said it’d take between 2 to 3 weeks. It has now been almost a month, so I asked again and I got the same dodgy reaction followed by ‘it might take a month or more’. To add to the list of suspicious things, I just got told today the accountant forgot to deduct the tax for this month, so next month I will pay double the amount. I asked if this meant, therefore, that this month I would get my salary tax free and got a vague ‘yes’ in response.
So my main question is this: is this common at all? Is it even legal to pay somebody cash in hand and, if so, will I be able to use the payslips to claim back my excess tax after 6 months (I am now paying 18%). Are they the one supposed to provide my health insurance card if they say they are deducting health insurance from my wages? And is it also common not to have a proper contract or is there something seedy going on here?
I’m to the point where I wonder if I should have contracts with people I tutor. Not because I’ve had problems (so far I haven’t, knock on wood) but rather because it covers both parties butts.(especially when working with children — is it ok for mom and dad and pop out for an hour? If this is 1:1, should other siblings be present? What about injuries, especially if the kid hurt themself doing something the parents don’t ever stop them from doing? The last thing you want is a lawsuit implying that you broke into their home or something for crazy reasons way beyond any issues you could possibly imagine).
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate the bilingual bible of a contract that the public schools make you go through, page by page — there’s little (legal) wiggle room for you or your employer when everything is spelled out and you’ve initialed each page. There’s also clear “this is what you do when x happens”. Wishy washy contracts and no contract when it comes to a “full time” (or 20 hr a week) teaching jobs are no good. I left a job because they were so vague in the contract and I was shocked about what I didn’t know I should have asked about and told them to put in before signing.
No contract = zero legal protection. You can show up to work for a month with the understanding that you’ll be paid 60k/month for 15 classes/week and they can tell you you’d agreed to work that first month for free. Line messages/texts have some ability to hold up on court, but a physical contract is much more useful. If you have a work permit (necessary if you don’t have an APRC or TW citizenship), you must have a contract. If you didn’t sign one and you still have a work permit, your boss forged your signature on a contract that you’ve never seen. In that case, you can try to sue them for fraud or walk away and leave it be.
But cash payments are fine, just make sure they’re paying their end of health insurance and labor insurance (if you’re eligible). From what you said, it sounds like they’re not.
If this is your primary work permit and you have a work based ARC they will have declared you for full time hours (most than 16 hours a week) so should make a contribution to your health insurance. Labour insurance I can’t recall the situation for teachers but probably they should be paying that as well.
You should have a contract .