Since you’re a dual citizen, tell them that you want them to process you as a foreigner and not a Taiwanese citizen. They will have to sponsor a work-permit for you and by law all the rights and benefits thereunto. They would have no choice in this. But, that would be too mahfan for them and they would probably just dismiss you anyway. If you have some foreigners working with you, find out how things work for them. Most assuredly they have everything if they are working legally and the company was required to sponsor them for a work-permit.
this sounds like a commissioned contractor for me.
if you have a hukou, i think you might need to cancel it first.
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It depends on the degree of subordination of personality, economic subordination, and group subordination, plus other factors. Having a flexible workload suggests lack of economic subordination, but it’s not decisive.
The problem with this trend (in many countries) of increasing part-time and “flexible” work is that very often the only thing that changes (compared to traditional employment) is that the employee/worker has fewer hours and less stability. The employer still behaves as an employer in every other respect, apart from a few altered words in the contract.
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in the case of OP, there seems to be no change apart from the words in the contract.
Other question: has the cram school a permit, is it official? You were contracted as an independent what?
They call it being a commissioned teacher. In Chinese they say 委託. They don’t call it an employment contract. They call it a special commission (委託同意書):
Article 4: I am a commissioned teacher, and not an employee in an employee relationship. All insurance and welfare items will be borne by myself personally.
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btw. I understand that I am free to choose to accept or not accept what they are offering. I am just curious about the legality.
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I left a school two years ago. At that time, they were adjusting to the new labor standards laws. The owner’s wife actually mentioned this type of loophole to me at the time. (She was implying that she would be interested in also doing this rather than paying benefits.)
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Exists in many places worldwide.
In terms of the Civil Code, it’s 委任, mandate, which would make you a 受任人, mandatory or mandatary (whichever spelling you like).
In some jurisdictions there’s a magic formula, e.g. if you work more than X hours per week for a certain person/business, you cease to be a contractor and automatically become an employee. Taiwan doesn’t have that, but as Tando pointed out earlier, it does follow the principle that if the contract is an employment (or labor) contract but uses a word other than employment (or labor), it’s still an employment (or labor) contract. The devil is in the details, like who provides the work materials, is there a non-competition agreement, can you schedule your own vacation and make your own arrangements for hiring a substitute, is there a uniform or dress code, what does your tax statement (issued by the company) say, and so on. Look up “sham contracting” for more.
You can show the contract to the labor department, and they will probably tell you it’s a labor contract (i.e. subject to the Labor Standards Act) despite the wording.
While we’re at it, let’s clarify a few terms:
僱傭 employment (“hire of services” in the Civil Code)
承攬 one type of independent contracting (“hire of work” in the Civil Code)
委任 the type of independent contracting that sham contractors generally try to use (“mandate”)
勞動契約 labor contract (defined by the LSA)
勞務契約 or 勞務給付之契約 contract for the provision of labor (includes all of the above and more)
A 僱傭契約 is usually a 勞動契約 and vice-versa, but not always. Any 勞務契約 is a 勞動契約 if (1) it’s a job that’s supposed to be covered by the LSA, and (2) a sufficient degree of subordination exists for it to meet the definition in LSA Art. 2 (in accordance with jurisprudence, not the LSA as it was written, because the LSA doesn’t actually mention subordination).
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Update: now it does, because they amended LSA Art. 2 Subpar. 6.
六、勞動契約：指約定勞雇關係而具有從屬性之契約。
- Labor contract means an agreement that establishes an employee-employer relationship with subordination to authority.