So, I’ve been working for my employer for about a year and a half. I have an exemplary record and have done everything that has been asked of me to their satisfaction. Now, I have a family emergency for which I have to take a leave of absence for about 4 months. My ARC is valid until about 4 months after my return date. I have requested that my employer not cancel my ARC but have been told that it will cost them several thousand NT per month to keep it open. Since I am not working for them during this time, they see no reason to pay these costs. I have recieved false info from them before which has cost me thousands of NT myself. Can someone tell me exactly how much an employer has to pay per month for having a teacher work for them? This includes health and labor insurance, I’m told. I appreciate any advice or feedback.
Sounds pretty lame. Sorry to hear about your dilemma. Other than sympathy tho, I fear I can’t offer any solid advice. Maybe posting the name of the school could prevent others from falling into this trap???
You could try calling the FAP or CLA yourself, or have a Chinese friend do it for you?
I think you can cancel your ARC yourself before you leave. They give you a week grace period to skeedaddle. Then just enter the country on a new visitor visa and start the process over again. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it may be your only choice.
I am sure others will be along shortly to offer sager advice than this.
Good luck SA.
It does cost schools money to have people on an ARC. A couple of thousand a month sounds high but I can check with the accountant tomorrow.
Thanks for the reply DB. Just to clarify, I was told more like 8000 per month. I was also told that this includes health and labor insurance, but not what else. If these are the only expenses, I’d be willing to pay the normal 1000 per. But 8000???
I know for a fact that it ain’t 8,000NT per month…someone is yanking yer chain.
Not quite what you’re looking for, but under Taiwan law an employee of more than 1 year is entitled to 7 days paid vacation leave, up to 30 days sick leave per year at half pay (but I believe that technically one is supposed to be sick to take that though I’m not certain what the law says in that regard) and 14 days of unpaid personal leave. That doesn’t give you the 4 months you want/need, but at least it’s almost 2 months (assuming you haven’t already taken such time off this year).
If the personal emergency you refer to is a death, you get from 3 to 8 days off, depending on the relation.
You could also get married and get an additional 8 days off, but it’s not worth it in my opinion.
i am not sure, maybe a boss can answer to this post, but are schools limited in the number of arc’s they can supply? that is, would you be holding a spot that the school might not be able to fill with a replacement while you were gone?
i’m just asking, not stating as fact.
[quote=“xtrain_01”]I am not sure, maybe a boss can answer to this post, but are schools limited in the number of arc’s they can supply? that is, would you be holding a spot that the school might not be able to fill with a replacement while you were gone?
I’m just asking, not stating as fact.[/quote]
Yes. Schools are allocated only a certain amount. If I were the OP’s boss, I don’t think I could hold an ARC for 4 months.
I’ve heard you would have to pay about 2,000 for the health card. That is 90% of the cost (Govt. pays rest, I think)-@ a low wage level.
Theres a pretty high turnover rate for teachers at my company, so I don’t think they need the extra ARC. Besides, they have actually offered to apply fo my new ARC by proxy for me while I’m gone. Because our personel dept is not very efficient, this would amount to them reapplying for my work permit about half way through my leave. So basically they would only be cancelling it for two months. And if I want to do it that way I need to have my third health check in a little over a year tomorrow, the day before I leave. My only other option is to get a new visitor visa while I’m home. I just don’t understand the point in this, so I have even offered to pay whatever the costs are if they can tell me exactly how much it is and what it is for. Can anyone here tell me what this amount might look like. Ball park figures acceptable but I’d prefer exacts if anyone knows. Thanks
ps: my girlfiend is in the same boat as we are leaving together and her boss never considered cancelling her ARC, just her health insurance. That aside, she said it costs her nothing to keep the ARC open.
Monthly costs for keeping an ARC up and running? Don’t think so.
Monthly payments to keep your health insurance up and running? Most definitely but, depending how high your declared income is, it shouldn’t be more than 2k/month. Could it be that the 8k your school mentioned was a quote for the whole 4 months?
So as long as I cancel my health insurance, it shouldn’t cost them anything, right?
Well, health insurance has to be paid monthly, as long as you’re still employed by them; at least that’s my understanding. Seeing as you would still hold an ARC, despite the leave of absence, you still are an employee and premium contributions still need to be made. Don’t take this as verbatim; just what I’ve gathered from experience processing work permits for a place I used to work at. The rules are always changing, as well. Anyone with more precise or current info, please feel free to correct me.
I know that it is a technicality, but it could prove helpful to point out to avoid confusion. What you are really talking about is your work permit. The school has nothing to do with your ARC other than they obtained the work permit for you that the ARC was issued upon. The process would therefore be that the school would cancel your work permit, which would see your resident visa cancelled, which in turn would invalidate your ARC.
My best guess is that the company just doesn
[quote=“brian”]I know that it is a technicality, but it could prove helpful to point out to avoid confusion. What you are really talking about is your work permit. The school has nothing to do with your ARC other than they obtained the work permit for you that the ARC was issued upon. The process would therefore be that the school would cancel your work permit, which would see your resident visa cancelled, which in turn would invalidate your ARC.
My best guess is that the company just doesn
You have all been very helpful. All of my immediate superiors have known about my situation for some time and I have made it known that I may be forced to take an extended leave at any time. I have given them plenty of notice that I was in fact going home to deal with this situation.
It doesn’t seem to be possible that they would doubt my intentions. I am on salary but I am in between contracts. As of january 23 I have yet to be given a new contract to sign but I have just renewed my ARC and continued to work for them. So there should be no way that I could be breaching an expired or yet to be signed contract, right?
Anyway, I thank you all for your assistance and look forward to posting some good news on this topic in the near future. If not, I will be sure to post the name of my company so all of you may steer clear. Cheers!
Now I don’t know the answer, but is this true?
From my understanding, regardless of whether or not we are salaried or working 40 hour weeks, the majority of foreign teachers are not actually considered full time workers.
Full time workers in Taiwan are entitled to things such as Chinese New Year bonuses, the Weiya (annual dinner), Typhoon days and public holidays with pay etc. They are also burdened with certain responsibilities such as deductions from pay to cover company trips and events, responsibilty to work a weekend day once every three months or so to make up for lost time due to the number of calendar days VS. monthly pay. Additionally, I believe that there are restrictions on the number of paid vacation days for true full time employees.
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Can someone clearly state who are full time workers, and who are part timers working a full time schedule?
I’m soory to say that I have been forced to terminate my employment with [color=red]Wall Street Institute[/color]. As I requested, they presented me with the list of expenses that included only Health and Labor insurance amounting to about 4500 per month. When I mentioned that they could just cancel th Health and that as far as I knew the Labor Insurance is bogus, I was told that they couldn’t cancel these without also cancelling the work permit. I also mentioned that since I would be earning no money, all of these expenses would be nullified as they are based on a pecentage of my income. I was told that what I was asking them to do was illegal.
I was also told that advice from such a forum as this, as well as my own interpretation of the rules regarding my situation, are not valid evidence for my side of the argument. However, I still value the knowledge given to me here and would appreciate any final advice or comments regarding my situation.
Please, someone tell me, am I wrong? Do I have any right to expect anything further form these hacks? Or am I the hack? Honest opinions and, or facts are equally welcome. Good or bad, let me have it. I trust your judgement.
So, for now, I’m leavin’, on a jet plane. Don’t know when I’ll be back again. But when I do it will hopefully be to work with a company whose personel manager doesn’t have her head up her arse.
This is just me, but I would have a hard time hanging on to someone’s ARC for four months. If it were for a month or two then no worries.
I agree that the school most likely just didn’t want to keep everything open. It doesn’t seem that either you nor the school is a hack, it is just a difficult situation to resolve.
What the school says about cancelling the health insurance being linked to your work permit does make sense and is likely to be accurate. Looking at it from the opposite end, if they give you a work permit then they must give you health insurance, so the reverse is likely to be true. Sorry for not noting this before, but I honestly didn’t think of it.
Provided that you haven’t already burned any bridges you could always just pick up where you left off when you get back, if that is what you want. Or you could just use your experiences there to help you get work elsewhere. Davids is generally held out to be a good place to work.