Employer withholds passport, causes overstay

I am writing this on behalf of an acquaintance. Newly arrived in Taiwan, he was employed by a not-so-well known chain school. They allegedly applied for a work permit etc. with copies of his passport. Then they advanced him some money as he was broke they had not provided the hours that they had stipulated on the contract. For this, they withheld his passport. Then they turned round and said that they hadn’t actually applied for the relevant documents in time, and, due to his passport being in the safe, he had overstayed his visa. He got the next flight out to Hong Kong, but had by this time overstayed a week. He got a new visa in Hong Kong, came back, and by mutual agreement left the job (with notice) as they did not in fact have enough hours to offer him, had taken all kinds of strange deductions off him, and were generally all round not too nice characters. As they had not stuck to their side of the contract, they agreed to allow him to find alternative employment, which he did very quickly. The 1st company said that they would not cancel his 2nd visa and allow it to run until it expired (which was last Thursday, although it is a mott point whether they had the right to cancel a visitor visa anyway.) However, owing to the fact that the 1st company had begun (but not completed) the work permit etc. application on the 2nd visa, the 2nd company could not process the application. The 2nd company only found this out on Thursday, and owing to typhoons and such like, the next flight out to HK was on the Sunday, meaning he had now overstayed by three days.

On arrival in HK, they told him point blank that there was no way he was allowed back in the country having overstayed two visas. He has since had to fly back to New Zealand at considerable expense, leaving all his possessions in Taiwan which will have to be forwarded also at considerable expense.

From my knowledge of the law, the first company (who have rather nasty reputation for this kind of thing anyway) have contravened article 57 of the Employment Service Act:

Article 57, which states an employer shall not:

   detain or appropriate foreign workers

I have, by the way, tried to find information from the Kafka-esque CLA and EVTA websites. There are all sorts of documents and stipulations on this, like reminding workers not to insult their employer or their relatives, and not to use your employer’s phone for phone sex. All very useful … but very little on punishing employers for cheating foreigners.

Your mate has no chance of recovering anything. Why oh why do people give their passports to employers ? The very second any employer who takes your passport for “photocopying” or whatever doesn’t give it back you ring the Foreign Affairs Police and your rep. office.

Since it appears that your friend was working illegal then I doubt Article 57 applies therefore he had no rights under Article 27 either.

The devil in me points out …

With hourly flights out of Taiwan, why the overstay? :smiling_imp:

Yes, thought as much - admittedly, surrendering your passport is a bit foolish, I did tell him as much, though having to surrender it to be legal to then be covered by rules which don’t allow employers to confiscate your passport … very Kafkaesque to say the least. It is a godawful situation - employer cheats foreigner, foreigner gets punished …

Does anyone think that there may be any grounds for at least a complaint, if not him claiming anything back? I’m sure he’d like to see the little sods squirm in court, even if he’s not here to watch, and I’d personally see it through the courts, simply to do my bit to stamp out these nasty, underhand practices by racist little upstart shopkeepers who run ‘English language schools.’

[quote=“Manmountain”]Yes, thought as much - admittedly, surrendering your passport is a bit foolish, I did tell him as much, though having to surrender it to be legal to then be covered by rules which don’t allow employers to confiscate your passport … very Kafkaesque to say the least. It is a godawful situation - employer cheats foreigner, foreigner gets punished …

Does anyone think that there may be any grounds for at least a complaint, if not him claiming anything back? I’m sure he’d like to see the little sods squirm in court, even if he’s not here to watch, and I’d personally see it through the courts, simply to do my bit to stamp out these nasty, underhand practices by racist little upstart shopkeepers who run ‘English language schools.’[/quote]
On a personal note, maybe relative, a very large chain school does the same thing if you take an advance against your pay. As a matter of fact, I was still repaying when I found a new job and had to pay them up before they would return the passport. Yes, the law says …but then again what other collateral does a foreigner have???

Collateral? First born children perhaps … although usually no school will advance you more money than you are actually owed, therefore no more than 50% of your salary and only after the 15th of the month. I think that the general moral of this story is … hang on to your passport!

Some days ago I started an “Abuses of the Work Permit System” thread, and I invite you to post some of your suggestions there. See [Abuses of the Work Permit system

I am collecting all related opinions and comments and hope to be able to take some action on getting these matters straightened out later in the Fall of 2004.

I had a similar experience earlier this year ( i have since left taiwan). In my case it was a prospective employer/agent who also said he needed my passport and then when i decided not to work for him, he refused to give my passport back (I know i was stupid, but when you are looking for a job, how many options do you have?). The foreign police in Sin-Ying (near Tainan) where the incident happened, knew him personally and refused point blank to help me. Eventually the foreign police in Taichung helped, but only to the extent that they gave me his promise that my passport will be returned. Eventually i had to take a taxi to his home town (where i had never been) and he still refused to give me his exact address. Then he left me standing in the blazing sun for two hours at the address he gave me before eventually he gave me his address. He then gave my passport back, but after that i felt so despondent that i left taiwan, but i am thinking of coming back. The way i understand it, they never need to physically take your passport, a copy will suffice. So somebody who wants your passport is almost definitely a crook!

your passport is strictly not yours to give away or pass to someone… it is given to you by your government but remains their property… never surrender your passport espically to some school, employer etc ( it means you are imprisoned within Taiwan until they “choose” to give it back so have you over a barrel)… and if you have to give it do make sure you get them to sign for it or have some written agreement

If an employer takes your passport and won’t give it back, tell your embassy (or the pseudo-embassy here in Taiwan.) Your passport is the property of your government, it is not legal for anyone to take it, and your government will get it back for you. You don’t need to “know” anyone in the police or anything like that.
This happened to me in China. The foreign affairs office at the university where I worked took my passport. I kept on asking for it back, but never received it. One day after informing the Canadian embassy in Beijing, my passport was back in my hands, and the person who had taken it was in trouble with her boss.

Good advice. Calling your trade office puts the little fckers in their place - a the bottom of the pile. Conflict at work, problem w/ the landlord, traffic accident. Get your boys at your trade office on the phone pronto regardless of your status here or language ability. No one, not even a city mayor wants to fck w/ you if you have your trade office representing you.