Got it. Thanks for sharing!
I never said mine is legal advice. I have not claimed as such. I am not representing him in court. But one does not need to be a lawyer to know basic legality. Do I need to be a lawyer to know killing people is illegal? Do I need to spend thousands on consultations to know for sure killing is illegal? OP is asking basic questions to get an idea before deciding whether or not to risk his own hard earned money for a lawyer to say whether or not to pursue legal action.
It may not have been personal, but the way you said it and the way you derided others’ help was definitely less than polite and could have been handled way better and in a more helpful manner. I do not think I need to disclaimer every post because the fact that my or any other post here is not professional legal advice is already common knowledge.
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Yeah I know what you mean. I also got screwed on pay too after they told me I would get more for my M.Ed and experience. They’re such cheapskates. And then the city I got placed in is also another shitshow. It’s been a mediocre experience teaching in Taiwan with no time to do anything really. If you can try to get a contract offered by the MOE so you can hold them accountable if they try something fishy. TT isn’t great. People can do much better than them.
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- My favorite word is “shitshow.” Thanks for that.
- Taiwan’s education system is bizarre. It’s the only one I know of that doesn’t pay teachers based on years of experience and credentials. Instead, they pay teachers based on years of employment. It’s a backwards system that is not in sync with how the world works.
- How do I apply directly with the MOE for teaching positions? Are you referring to the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program?
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To be fair, Marco isn’t making any claims to be a legal expert. He pointed me in the right direction to FIND legal expertise, even sharing the contact info of a licensed attorney in Taiwan. Incredibly helpful.
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Haha it really is a shitshow no joke. I’ve never worked in a public school where they were so invested in their own political interests, that they use teachers as pawns and sacrifice them to get re-elected. Die for our greed is the indirect message.
I was surprised myself how some of these public schools can pull the same bullshit cram schools would.
You might need to call up/email the MOE of the cities you’re interested in instead of relying on these “programs”.
My co-teachers says to go for smaller cities/counties less micromanagement and side bullshit.
It could also be a translation error. Only the Chinese words are enforceable by law
A contract can legally contain a penalty clause. The problem here would be if the company withheld salary for hours already worked. I don’t believe that would be legal.
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That’s correct. They can’t take your salary from you as a penalty especially after working those hours. I’ve contacted a foreign labor consultant asking the same question, he straight out told me that was not something th employer can enforce.
This is not true, i have had contracts here with an added caveat something like
“This Agreement is drawn up in the English language and Mandarin if any difference should arise form the two versions the English language text shall prevail.”
This also works the other way around, if you dont understand something, dont sign it without having it independently verified, or just sign the English sections and cross out the Chinese and initial them.
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Whaaat really??! I was under the impression that it was always the Chinese version that prevailed. I thought it had to do with the courts only recognizing Chinese or something like that
If Teach Taiwan and the public schools they represent are offering contracts with clauses that are illegal, there should be consequences. Who can I report this to?
Was it an ex boss that told you that?
I guess you can report it to the MOL (Ministry of Labor) maybe?. But I’m not sure they will do anything about it, unless you’re currently working under TT and the schools try to enforce an illegal clause. They did try to pull some other shit on me last semester and I apparently lodged a complaint without knowing–so it got the city government pissed off at TT, the main school, and a director. Scared the shit out of them and that’s why they leave me alone this semester meanwhile still salty and petty about the incident lol.
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The law in Chinese prevails. But not necessarily the contract.
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I would only call it an “illegal contract” if the whole thing is illegal, like a contract for the purpose of committing a crime. If it’s just a few clauses that are illegal, the rest of the contract stands. And there’s no law that automatically makes knowingly putting illegal content in a contract a punishable offense. (There’s fraud etc., but you would have a hard time proving that.)
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When I was in arbitration, the existence of a single illegal clause caused the whole contract to be invalid.
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Correct, with rare exceptions (treaties which state that both/all languages are equally valid).
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I think you mean mediation (調解). If so, it was just someone’s opinion.
That didn’t seem to be the case with the labour affairs centre. They declared unequivocally that the contract was invalid for having illegal clauses.
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