Company's moving to a place where public transport isn't convenient. What are my options?

Work Working in Taiwan
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My current office is on the Neihu main road; it’s only 25 minutes away from my house by bus (no need to transfer) and 5 minutes away from an MRT station.

The great CEO has this ~great~ idea to move the office to the middle of nowhere; it’s still in Neihu, but it’s far away from the main road; and based on google maps’s direction recommendation, it’s far, far away from any bus/MRT station. The new office will be ready in May/June.

They do offer shuttle buses stationed near several MRT stations, so we can go to those stations, and the buses will take us to the new office. But none of the stations are close to my home, and with this new method of transportation, it will take almost 1.5 hours for me to get to the new office (home → MRT station → shuttle bus station → new office), tripling the commute time.

Slightly unrelated, a lot of the employees (including my department colleagues) aren’t happy with this decision, so a lot of them also will not move. Even if I decided to go along with the company, my workload would increase by a lot, and it’s just not worth it.

A lot of my colleagues are planning not to move, aka to quit. I’m the only non-Taiwanese in the office. Some of them said that legally, the company will have to survey to see who is willing to move & who isn’t. Those who aren’t must be compensated as if they’re being let go by the company (so, severance package). However, some of them said that since the company already provides us with a transportation method, and since the new office address is still in Neihu, they said that this severance package deal wasn’t valid.

They also mentioned that if we refuse to move and quit, the Taiwanese government will offer us unemployment benefits monthly for 6 months (I think they said it’s about 40% of our previous salary). And even after we get a new job before the 6 months are up, they will still pay us, but not the full 40%.

Now, I have several questions:

  1. Will I (a foreigner) get a severance package if I refuse to move?
  2. Will I also get unemployment benefits?
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There are certain condition to be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Is your spouse Taiwanese?

Resignation usually does not allow for unemployment benefits, there are some exceptions:
Employer relocation - If your workplace moves to a location so far that continuing to work becomes impractical. You would have to convince them that it is impractical.
Each case is evaluated individually.

Similar situation for severance pay. You’d need to show that the relocation creates an unreasonable burden, which might require legal or administrative support.
If many employees quit, that might make it easier to prove the new location is too burdensome.

Looks like you would have to fight for your benefits.

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Did they pay into your labor insurance as a foreigner? If yes then there’s a chance but it depends on reason of separation.

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No, I’m a single guy (work ARC holder).

After googling around, I couldn’t find any official documents or articles about whether I’m eligible for severance pay. But I’m still eligible for unemployment benefit because if I’m not willing to relocate then it won’t be considered as resigning based on this article 勞工因雇主「遷廠」而自行離職，仍可申請失業給付。-勞動部全球資訊網中文網 . It seems like the only proof needed is the fact that the company is relocating.

The thing is, I don’t know if this law extends to non-Taiwanese, regular ARC holders.

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One difference is that employers aren’t required to pay labor insurance for all types of ARC holders, so you should clarify whether you have unemployment benefits as part of your labor insurance first. Or you can check your paystub to see if they have been contributing to labor insurance and deducting from your pay.

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I think they do. The first one is labor insurance I think.

To clarify, my type of ARC is the one that we get if we graduate from a Taiwanese university and then get a white-collar job, and has to be renewed annually (or in my case every 2 years for convenience).

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I dont think unemployment benefit apply to anyone besides the ones married to a taiwanese.

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Looks like it’s called 就保

Check out this thread for other foreigner experiences: Are there unemployment benefits in taiwan? - #3 by Andrew0409

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Foreigners are not entitled to unemployment benefits unless you have a local spouse. Found it the hard way. I have a professional APRC and our company shut down. Everyone was offered a severance pay and the labour office came to the company and explained about unemployment benefits. Initially they said I could apply but after calling me to the office and cycling all the documents, checking with their head office and insurance companies I was told it’s only available for foreigners who are married to the locals. Also one of the reasons foreigners should negotiate for a higher salary than locals.

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Ask to switch to a hybrid work mode. Two days in orifice three at home.

Or buy a scooter.

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Wow…still.

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Then the laoban goes great 70% pay .

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Sounds like they probably found a cheaper place to rent, which is understandable for a business.

Ideally, the company should have done an internal gauge on the location impacting their staff even if it’s in the same area as you mentioned. There is always a risk of employees not happy or not coming with, but you would want to understand this and weigh the pros and cons.

We just recently moved our warehouse, it’s in the same town but more in the industrial area now from just at the edge of town center. I communicated the reason for the move to the staff beforehand, and they understood, even though it added some additional commute times.

A well ran company would have asked internally who wouldn’t stay and worked out either a severance package beforehand and start finding replacements with the transition or to negotiate some kind of increase pay or travel allowance to those who would want to leave or are on the fence about it.

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Good to know! When I go back I’m going to have to hoard as much money as possible.

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They didn’t conduct any internal survey beforehand, and I’ve talked to my colleagues and many of them will refuse the relocation.

Ironically, my company just fired 15 people (out of 70) last December for efficiency, which is a redundant move IMO since many employees will leave anyway because of the relocation.

Have you brought up this topic/issue during a job interview? I don’t know how to bring this up & negotiate, so a piece of advice/tip would be great haha.

I did. My whole division came together and talked to the big boss about this a few weeks ago, and it’s been crickets haha.