I’ve just received a job offer from a buxiban in Tucheng, Taipei. The contract contains a number of unpleasant clauses, and I wonder if anyone can comment on the legality (or otherwise) of the following paragraphs:
[quote]8.1 An amount of NT$2,000 shall be deducted monthly from the teacher’s salary and placed in a separate account for emergency legal, medical, or travel fees.
8.2 This sum plus interest earned shall be reimbursed to the teacher when he completes his contract term or anytime employment with the School is terminated. The Teacher may access this fund at anytime however interest can only be earned after a full 12 months.[/quote]
I understood that it was illegal for the school to withhold pay in this fashion. But can anyone cite the relevant labour laws?
To me it sounds like just a way to hide the deposit they want to take from you and/or a way to come up with the cash for your contract-completion bonus (if there is one) without actually giving you extra money. Is the pay really really good? It could be a way for them to appear to have a better pay scale than they actually do.
Besides the fact that it sounds ridiculous to force a savings plan on someone, you probably won’t have many days off to use the fund for “travel fees”. I don’t really even get what that means, unless they’re planning on sending you to other branches to work, and they plan to use your money to get you there. Also, I’d be very worried about leaving the job early, cause they’ll probably find a way to keep that money.
I’d assume you are never going to see that money, and so would only take the job if the pay minus the 2,000 a month is good. If they do give it back to you, hey, great, it’s a nice bonus, but don’t expect it and then you won’t be stressing out over it.
It says you can access the money at any time, so presumably they’ll give you a passbook and an ATM card for that account. If not, why not?
Also, in order for you to access it at any time, it must by needs be YOUR account, so who is the school to say if it gets interest or not? That would be between you and your bank, no?
Ask them.
I spoke to someone at the school’s head office today after a little of the old Socratic method he basically admitted that this clause was an insurance scheme for the school.
The contract also includes this gem:
[quote]16.1 In the event that the teacher decides to terminate the contract before the noted end date, the school has the right to charge a penalty fee of the average of the last four months salary. In addition, the teacher must sign a letter of termination at the Head Office before collecting the remainder of his salary./quote]
So the school gets TWO insurance policies, worth maybe $60,000 after a year. Talk about belt and braces. After a little haggling he agreed to get rid of clause 16.1, but insisted that the Emergency Savings Plan was “non-negotiable”.
Another clause forbids teachers from working for a competitor within 3 miles of the school for one year after the end of the contract.
I mean - who the hell do these people think they are?
Incidentally, in reply to early queries, the money is not that good. $600/hour - rising to 610 after 6 month if “no student drops out of class due to dissatisfaction.” Well - I wonder who gets to be the judge of that…
Guaranteed that any student who drops out - for any reason whatsoever up to and including death (their own) - will be judged to have dropped due to dissatisfaction.
[quote=“ragingbull101”]Hi everyone I’ve just received a job offer from a buxiban in Tucheng, Taipei. The contract contains a number of unpleasant clauses, and I wonder if anyone can comment on the legality (or otherwise) of the following paragraphs:
Tell them to show the contract to the CLA. Anyways you are an adult so act like one and tell them you can manage your own saving plan quite fine. Its a SCAM