I’ve been trying to call the NIA’s Foreigner hotline (1990) all morning, but the call keeps getting terminated while I’m on hold. Hopefully, some of the experienced people on here will be able to lend me a guiding hand.
I have a typical buxiban contract and there are some terms and conditions around resigning before the 1-year contract is up. I am thinking of making a move before completing the contract, but before I do I would like to know to what extent these conditions are legally enforceable.
There are 4 items the school paid for that the contract says I must reimburse them for if I resign.
Work permit handling fee (NT$500)
Medical exam for visa (NT$1420)
Orientation allowance (NT$4200) - first week’s training
Temporary Housing Fee (NT$12000) - first week’s accommodation
Obviously, I would prefer not to pay this money back as I will be picking up a lot more additional costs in moving, ARC extension fee, no pay for a month, etc. Also, I feel that they should absorb these costs.
Regardless of whether they are enforceable - and in one sense nothing is enforceable unless the wronged party wants to escalate - these conditions don’t seem unreasonable. Equivalent clauses are common in the West; for example, I would be obliged to repay any training costs to my employer if I left within X months of the training.
The best course of action, surely, is to just be upfront with them about your planned move and see if there’s any wiggle room. Raise the issue of “unpaid work”, for example - which should have never happened in the first place - and see if they’re inclined to come to some arrangement. If they’ve done anything wrong themselves, they will probably be more than keen to do so (don’t threaten them, btw - that rarely works, and they’ll already know the labour bureau could have a say in the matter if they’ve failed to pay you for something). If they won’t, just pay the agreed costs and move on. The point here is that the English-teaching world is still a fairly small niche, and word gets around.
If you feel that they are in breach of contract, then of course it would be well worth talking to the labour bureau before attempting any negotiation. As suggested above, go there in person. IMO it’s easier than doing it by phone, and you’re more likely to get a positive result.
Thanks for your responses.
I’ll head to Taipei City Hall and ask in person.
First things first, just need to know first if the contract terms are legit.
I would probably trust what the labour department says over people on the Internet. They can tell you with more certainty. Might as well go to the horse’s mouth.
I once left a job with a 20k fine for leaving early in the contract. I told them that if they deducted it from my last salary I would sue them, and they didn’t.
Most people here seem to confuse the fine line between what is written in a contract VS how the contract is enforced.
If you signed a contract agreeing to those terms(i.e the school will absorb the fees granted you complete thr contract. And if you terminate early you must pay)
If you signed it then you are on the hook for those costs should you terminate early.
NOW HERE COMES THE MORE IMPORTANT PART.
IF you terminate early the school is legally allowed to try and recoup the money paid.
HOWEVER
HOW (and I very emphatically stress the HOW) the school goes about it will depend on whether it is it legal nor not.
It IS LEGAL for the school to put any kind of fine, monetary punishment, repayment of fees conditions in a contract.
It IS LEGAL for the school to try and recoup those monies provided they use LEGAL methods, for example they can take you to court for breach of contract plus you did sign an agreement to pay back that money.
HOWEVER
Its IS NOT LEGAL for the school to deduct monies for any kind of bill/fine/even tuition in the case of say a teachers student studies at said school.
Simply put a workplace cannot touch one penny of your salary UNLESS you have some agreement regarding such deductions.
In short they can sue you for that money if they wanted to and you’d be forced to pay, but they can’t automatically deduct ANYTHING from your salary without express permission from you
(except for those Gov. mandated bills INS, Labor insurance, pension etc.)
This is confusing. A contract that has illegal clauses in it is illegal. Many cram schools do this because they know that most foreigners are never going to go to court and will just pay up to make things go away. Not to mention all the people who tell them to just pay what you owe and move on. This is one way how cram schools make so much money. They steal from their employees.
Take your contract to the labor department or who ever handles this stuff and have them go over it. They will tell you where you stand. Don’t go around lunch time or near closing time because they might just want to get you out the door and say whatever they need to in order to facilitate this action. You may want to get a second opinion as well. Once you have this and get it in writing as well, go to your boss/manager and show it to them.
The key point to remember is that the cram school business is a bottom feeder industry. Most of the owners and managers will lie, cheat, steal, scam, and do what ever they can to rip you off. Don’t trust a word out of their mouths.
It is not illegal to have a punitive clause in a contract, many contracts all over the world have them.
Its how they enforce it that makes it illegal.
if they say “a 20k fine will be deducted” generally than yes its somewhat illegal only if they actually take it out before paying you.
Many schools are getting smarter and still including the penalty clauses but their wording has gone from “deducted” to more legal wording like “collected” or “must be payed”
“I must reimburse the costs incurred” than technically its not illegal. Because they didn’t say they would “deduct” it but rather the OP would have to “pay back”
so yes you can go to the Labor dept but from my experience alot of things depends on how they word it. (a coworker and I had this debate with a school once and I helped another coworker get out of a HESS contract when he came to work with us)
if the amount is rather low, yes you can try to challenge it and they may just let it go as paying a lawyer would be more costly than the amount to be collected. But they could also do it without a lawyer and write the court document themselves, if they do this, remember they are a boss and they dont need to “take time off” to go to court, while you will.
simply put count your costs, see if something can be negotiated but at the same time prepare for the worst
Another thing, it does not matter what it says in an English contract if there is a Chinese version signed. Many sign the contract with the Chinese version assuming it says the same as the English one. The Chinese version is what will be used in court.
That’s true. I think just refuse to sign the Chinese contract , but if a person needs an ARC then almost impossible. There is a part in the English contract that says something like “In the event of a legal dispute the Chinese version is the one that parties shall refer to. .” Or something like that. Maybe can ask to cross that part out. Another way is do all correspondence by email not to personal line accounts. For example on receiving a job offer you could ask for confirmation of certain requirements like"So my working hours are from to…" , "In the event of leaving I need to give one month notice ?'.
Things like that. However don’t use personal social media for that use their official company emails.
If people have an APRC, I think better just not to sign one. Contracts are nearly always in favor of the employer not employee.