Yes and if the owner is paying you a bit over the labor law rate (i.e. 110 NT/hr) and you don’t like it, you can either 1) leave and don’t let the door hit your behind on your way out or 2) BOHICA.
Where is the labor union when we really needed one?
Henry Paulson, James Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke…
Oh wait, we’re talking about the 'wan. Silly me.
Pig: Our Western countries (I’m not American, by the way) are not perfect, but I have a lot more faith in the basic rule of law in most Western nations than here, for instance. When it comes to labour law, the pendulum is definitely in favour of the workers in Australia. Some would say too much in favour of them.
That I agree. Unfortunately, without cheap labor (and hence the crappy labor laws), most Asian countries would fail economically.
PigBloodCake: Not would, will. This is the great issue that surely must be facing Taiwan in the not too distant future. Economically, citizens will expect to progress, yet if it’s about cheap wages, then they can’t/won’t unless they can (in sufficient numbers) move into the creative/management roles while other nations do the grunt work for them. At some point, people are no longer happy to have just moved out of the rice paddy and own a scooter. They want their middle class cushiness, leisure time and spending habits.
The other issue is demographics. The Taiwanese can’t afford to have babies, both in terms of the time and money associated with raising them. So, they’re not having babies. Of course, a society can deal with that by having immigration. Taiwan is not exactly open to the idea of opening the flood gates, and with good reason. A country like Australia has high immigration, but it’s still not a massive percentage of the population each year because the fertility rate of the locals is not too far off replacement levels. For Taiwan to get up to replacement levels, the flood gates would well and truly have to be opened to the point where they wouldn’t be able to assimilate them fast enough and the fundamental nature of what it is to be Taiwanese would be radically altered. No one here wants Taiwan to become more/semi- Thai or Vietnamese. Some might be okay with letting more from the PRC in, but that would also have major ramifications that plenty would wish to prevent also.