I’m quite curious, because I’m reflecting on some events that took place at work yesterday, and I’m pretty sure it was witness intimidation.
I will not go into details, but some not minor laws were broken by my employer. My employer was reported for them. We were all called into a meeting in which they told us that they know which one of us reported them and that such behavior shows a lack of gratitude for the money they give us. They emphazised that no laws were broken (super awkward silence…yeah, laws were most certainly broken…and continue to be broken…) and that reporting them is a waste of everyone’s time. They emphasized in about 20 different ways that they give us money, so we shouldn’t be reporting to authorities about laws that “aren’t being broken”. (except, they are being broken.)
I don’t know if they really do know who reported them (it’s been mentioned a billion times on Forumosa that it’s not really possible to remain anonymous in this country), but it made my blood boil to basically be told “all of you should have an undying loyalty to us and under no circumstance should you ever report to anyone but us because we give you money”. It kinda misses the part where we work for our paychecks and also don’t want to get sued.
Anyway, I see that witness intimidation can be a misdemeanor or felony in a lot of states in the US, so I was wondering what Taiwan’s laws are. I didn’t have anything to record with because the meeting was supposed to be a discussion about Thanksgiving activities, not a screaming at regarding our lack of gratitude (kinda meta, considering the original point of the meeting). So I don’t have evidence (unless I can steal the CCTV footage?).
I don’t actually want to pursue anything, I’m just wondering what the laws are. Thanks for whatever y’all know
They probably assume it was me. I have no idea what my face looked like (thankfully, masks!), but I could feel my heart rate getting faster and faster the more they talked at us. Probably because I’ve dealt with similar employers in the past, and I had something of a “fight” reaction to this happening AGAIN. I’m about ready to call the education bureau (labor bureau?) to tell them that this happened and that the laws the school says aren’t being broken are being broken, but I’m not sure that does anything but stick my neck out…
Bosses and many locals have very low legal literacy, at least in my experience. Many people will do things because they think it’s perfectly fine in some capacity or another.
My boss at the time did much of the same thing when I called him out on his bullshit and worded his questions to the government in such a way to get a favourable answer.
I need to get my ducks in a row, but I’m not really interested in working for a school that blatantly breaks laws, gets in trouble for it, then turns around and tells everyone that everything is perfectly legal, “so stop reporting us to the authorities.”
I don’t know how people like that can live with themselves…
They don’t care, they really think they are within the law and you are ‘erroneously’ reporting them because they fed the wrong info to the govt rep on the phone to get a half-baked reply or they think they are above the law.
You are working to create profits for their company, and have agreed to do so for a fee. Unless you are a charity case in which they “hire” you with zero expectations of anything being financially improved to their company by hiring you.
If your work visa is through there it would of meant you got deported as well, once upon a time. That may be a bit extreme now, but dont discount the seriousness of being out of work and going through beaurocratic bullshit to keep residence to the point you question your life decisisions due to the stress. protect yourself before playing hero. MANY of us here have been f*cked so hard doing this it no longer hurts when it happens the next time. So prepare properly.
If you have a JFRV/APRC and have a decent grasp of mandarin, join the fight and bring it down on the bastards!
It’s hard to form an opinion without the minor details. Many rules are stupid and should be ignored. Anyone reporting those is basically a troublemaker. If it’s something serious, that’s another matter. I see nothing resembling intimidation in the OP’S description of the meeting though.
I think you can get a 6month visa. Not a big deal. You can get up to 12month extension. You’ll be out of work though. Toxic work environments are horrendous. It also surprises me how hard some people it from their employer and seem to be completely ok with it.
Take home point, try to become as independent as possible. Financially, this often means opening a vague/general company and selling services to another that way. Teaching is a bit of a different thing with the protect the children type laws, so maybe it wouldnt work outside tutoring or starting.your own school. But its probably the best way to gain true fairness and equality. But also what comes with that is responsibilities. The thought of working for a company that treats their employers likethat now literally makes my skin crawl. Cant stand those kinds of ignorant, self involved folks that are borderline psychopathic.
