snip
Well, what do you think happened here?
They didn’t appear to have sacked you, so they didn’t appear to have paid your severance pay. Not too hard to figure out really … I suppose the obvious thing to ask is whether the company officially terminated the contact or just asked you “not to come to the office for a while.”
I am not sure, but I was told that if you are a contract employee then you do not fit into the class of other employees that deserve severence pay. It seemed to make sense, so I did not pursue the matter further.
Everything that happens to you when sacked is stipulated in your contract. MEANING that you need to negotiate terms for severence BEFORE you get hired and have it spelled out clearly. My contract said that either party had to give a 1 month notice before terminating the contract. They did that and paid me for any accumulated leave time. That’s it.
Now, that means that “they’ve got you” so to speak because when you are desparate for a job, you have to try to ask them to pay you 2 months salary if they chose to lay you off.
Have a look at Taiwan’s Labor Standards Law at:
virtual-asia.com/taiwan/bizp … bor1_2.htm
Article 16
Where an employer terminates a labor contract pursuant to provisions of Article 11 or the conditional provisions of Article 13, the terms described below shall govern the prescribed time limit for serving advance notice.
Where a worker has continuously worked for more than three months but less than one year, the notice shall be given 10 days in advance;
Where a worker has continuously worked for more than one year but less than three years, the notice shall be given 20 days in advance;
Where a worker has continuously worked for more than three years. the notice shall be given 30 days in advance.
After receiving the advance notice referred to in the preceding paragraph, a worker may, during hours of work, ask for leave of absence for the purpose of finding a new job. Such leave of absence may not exceed two work days per week. Wages shall be paid during such leave of absence.
Where an employer terminates the contract without serving an advance notice within the time limit prescribed in the first paragraph of this Article, he shall pay the worker wages for the advance notice period.
Article 17
Where an employer terminates a labor contract pursuant to the provisions of the preceding Article, he shall pay separation fee to the worker in accordance to the terms prescribed below:
Separation fee equivalent to one-month’s average wage shall be paid to the worker who has continuously worked in the business entity of the same employer for each full year;
In respect of odd month service periods computed pursuant to the preceding paragraph, or in respect of a service period of less than one year, separation fee shall be computed proportionately.
A service period of less than one month shall be computed as one month.
Article 18
Under any of the following circumstances, a worker shall not claim from his employer additional wage for the advance notice period and separation fee:
Where a labor contract is terminated under the provisions of Article 12 or 15.
Where the worker terminates his service upon expiration of a fixed-term contract.
If yoy get sacked make sure you get a written notice, a verbal notice might not be valid and you will have difficulties in making any claims due to lack of proof.
Based on the fact they actually still did employ you - even though you didn’t go to work - I assume they intentionally tried to lead the contract to an end, i.e. they didn’t sack you.
However you have gotten 3 month salary + 3 month compensation, that would equal to a 6 month severance payment, doesn’t it? If you are happy with that then I would just forget about the whole issue. In fact you got an additional bonus and continued NHO coverage, so I would tend to say your employer was fair. Maybe not entirely correct but IMHO fair.
Everything that happens to you when sacked is stipulated in your contract. MEANING that you need to negotiate terms for severence BEFORE you get hired and have it spelled out clearly.
IMHO that clearly depends on the local laws and regulations of the country you are working in. You could of course include a clause such as “In case the employer terminates the contract before the expiration date a severance payment according to the local laws and regulations of Taiwan will be paid.” to be sure.
May make sense for expatriates, assuming the labour law applies to them, too. (It does, doesn’t it?)
If there is no such regulation or law related to severance payment than you may add such a clause to the contract, but this seems not to be necessary in Taiwan (see the very informative link posted by tigerman).
My contract said that either party had to give a 1 month notice before terminating the contract. They did that and paid me for any accumulated leave time. That’s it.
Well, no offense but that’s your own fault. If you do not claim any severance pay then too bad, your contract does IMHO not exclude you from being entitled to it (by law).
Not knowing that can also be considered your own fault but perhaps you still could make such a claim, if necessary you may need to sue your former employer.
Rascal,
Yes. The Labor Standards Law does not discriminate against foreign or expatriate employees per say, but excludes certain industries from coverage. The original poster did not indicate in which industry his company belongs, i.e., banking, law, education, etc…
Take them to the department of labor affairs for arbitration. I’ve been there a few times myself as an employer.
It usually always works out in favor of the employee no matter what your starting point.
They will take your accusations seriously and a verbal sacking is as good as a written one.