I’m employed at a kindy and I’ve been informed that I need to pay Labour Insurance before I can be eligible for National Health Insurance. Is this true? The reason I ask is that I’m not to keen on paying for something I don’t need nor is required, especially when their choice of labour insurance is with some beetlenut manufacturer. What I thought was that, once employed, your school would then apply for national Health Insurance. But for some unknown reason my school seems a little reluctant, even when I will be paying for the cover. So can others out there keep me better informed regarding national Health Insurance and the possible need for Labour Insurance?
They’re bullshitting you. They are required by law to pay for your health insurance. You pay about 250 or 350 a month deducted from your slalary and they pay 700 or so.
Brian
Brian is right!
Thanks for the info regarding National Health Insurance. Cauld you tell me where in the law that it states that the employer is responsible for covering Health Insurance. & secondly do I need to pay for labour Insurance before I can apply and be eligible for National Health Insurance? For they keep telling I’m required to pay labour Insurance if I want to get National Healtrh Insurance.
What’s your nationality/visa status Peter?
The NHI and labor insurance are really two separate things, and one is not related to the other as far as I know. I am in the same boat as you. I am an engineer, and our company seems to be registered under the “labor department” or something like that. Because our company is registered as such, all employees need to pay premiums for the labor insurance.
I asked the accountant at our company about this. I told her I didn’t really want to pay any labor ins premiums since I probably wouldn’t receive any benefit anyway. She said she was sorry, but that was our company rule. It is the same for Taiwanese employees as it is for foreigners.
I’m guessing that your kindergarten is also registered in the same way that my company is, so you may not have any choice in the matter since this is the policy of your school. You might have to work in a different school that does not have this policy.
Best of luck, and let us know how things turn out.
Just thought of something else. Maybe what your school is trying to tell you is you have two options: being employeed legally or illegally.
If you are employed illegally, then the insurance issue is moot, as you will have none.
If you want to be employed legally, thereby giving you the NHI, then you will also have to pay for the labor insurance.
This might be what they are trying to tell you, but the way they are saying it is confusing.
That’s interesting. Are kindergartens legally allowed to hire foreign teachers?
I was thinking the same thing, but I’m pretty sure I heard there is now a new law that allows kindergartens to hire foreigners. I am not a teacher, so I’m no expert. Searching through the Teaching forum would probably produce the answer to that question.
Teaching in kindergartens is a grey area. Article 46 of Employment Services Law does not list teaching in kindergartens as something foreigners can do. So it’s probably illegal. However, the Ministry of Education has seen fit to issue an administrative order permitting Buxibans to outsource foreign teachers to kindergartens as teaching assistants. So in practice you are allowed to do it for the time being. This interesting case of an arbitrary administrative order actually benefiting foreign residents of Taiwan.
Back to the original topic: you are required by law to pay for labor insurance. And you do benefit from it if you are injured or killed on the job. You are also eligible for retirement benefits if you pay in to the system long enough. If I remember correctly, your labor insurance is now portable, meaning that you can add up time spent with different employers for purposes of calculating retirement benefits eligibility.
Labor Insurance is administered by the Council on Labor Affairs. It is entirely separate from your health insurance, which is also compulsory.
Lastly, the amount you pay in is really very small. You should be tactful when dealing with your HR people about questions like this unless you want to get a reputation as a “mafan” foreigner. Do be sure to watch them like a hawk if they handle your ARC business–many overstays have occurred because foreign employees thought HR was taking care of it.
My employer has told me that both Labour Insurance (lao bao) and Health Insurance (jian bao) must be paid by law. I work in a buxiban.
OK, I may be wrong, but I was pretty sure that buxibans (at least for foreign workers) were not covered by labor insurance. I’ve been legal for years and not paid any. But my health insuranceis no problem. I do remember hearing that foreigners working for businesses covered by departments other than the Ministry of Ed have to pay, labor, but not buxibans etc.
As for the issue of the kindy. If they’re intending to employ you ‘semi-legally’, they probably have a buxiban liscence (and maybe even a buxiban) and you’re technically working for a buxiban, even though you’re teaching kindy kids.
Brian
The amount you pay on labor insurance is also a percentage of your salry.
The more you earn, the more labor insurance you have to pay
wow this is all news to me. i have to ask my accountant about it.
I pay both, deducted from my salary.
[quote]I pay both, deducted from my salary.
[/quote]
You’re not an English teacher though are you? Do they show up as one item or two?
brian
[quote=“Sir Donald Bradman”][quote]I pay both, deducted from my salary.
[/quote]
You’re not an English teacher though are you? Do they show up as one item or two?
brian[/quote]
No I’m not, Brian. Mea culpa. The deductions are shown separately (actually, they’re not shown at all on my payslip, but if I ask for a written explanation of deductions, they’re shown separately. I think this is because the laobao payments count toward your pension or something, whereas the jianbao does not.)
I’m an Aussie with a JFRV & OWP. No news to update from the kindy regards the National Health Insurance or the Labour Insurance. But what I did find out was that kindy teachers do not need to pay tax, so it puzzles me that I was asked to pay tax when it wasn’t required. I worked out with the kindy that I’ll file my own tax,(thanks to those at seque who dicussed this topic, otherwise I’ll probably be paying tax) so no tax will be deducted. So just waiting in limbo until they get back to me. But thanks for all the new info.
I also thought there was an ammendment to the law that allows foriengners to teach at a kindy. Am i hearing right or wrong, as I definately am against working illegally or breaking any laws. So can this be cleared up? thanks
[quote=“Feiren”]Teaching in kindergartens is a grey area. Article 46 of Employment Services Law does not list teaching in kindergartens as something foreigners can do. So it’s probably illegal. However, the Ministry of Education has seen fit to issue an administrative order permitting Buxibans to outsource foreign teachers to kindergartens as teaching assistants. So in practice you are allowed to do it for the time being. This interesting case of an arbitrary administrative order actually benefiting foreign residents of Taiwan.
.[/quote]
Now legal. groups.msn.com/LivinginTaiwan/ki … legal.msnw
That is the info in Chinese and a link to some info in English.
The new law has passed through the legislative yuan for the third time recently - so as long as your ARC is with a cram school and there is a stamp on it allowing you to be at a kindy, then everything is ok.
But then the biggest grey area of all would be - can you teach English with a JFRV and ARC? The law says yes but the MOE says NO.
There is no amendment that allows foreigners to teach in kindergartens. There was an amendemnt that will allow foreigners to teach in public schools. Previously foreigners could teach only in private schools.
So are you teaching illegally? That depends. As I explained in earlier post, the MOE issued and administrative order that allows LICENSED buxiban’s to subcontract foreign teachers to “assist” in Kindergartens. So if you work for a licensed Buxiban that has subcontracted you to a kindie and you assist (whatever that means) theactual teacher at the kindie then you are fully compliant with the MOE’s (probably incorrect) interpretation of the law.
Now in your case you have an OWP,which means that you probably did not get a work permit through your Buxiban. In this case, you may be working illegally in some jurisdictions (notably Kaohsiung) since the MOE holds that you need a work permit through your local Bureau of Education if the local jurisdiction requires you to have one. The Council of Labor Affairs defers to the MOE on the work permit issue but says that you won’t be deported if you get caught. Since the police deport people rather than the Council, this might not help you much though.
Confused? Good. It’s confusing as hell. What is the bottom line? You may not be 100 percent legal, but it is very unlikely that you will be deported or have any other legal problems. If you want to put your mind to rest, have the Buxiban that hired you apply for a work permit for you.
hth
Feiren