Is it legal for an employer to offer optional training that must be done after hours, but then put a statement where if you don’t reach a certain level of improvement, they will deduct a penalty out of your salary?
Is there any government documentation regarding this sort of deduction?
Key word: “optional”
That should say enough right there.
Also, I do believe fines are not allowed.
Withholding or deducting from a bonus, yes. But a fine on your salary, no.
Is the improvement they speak of directly related to what is being offered in the training course?
You get paid a salary to show up during your working hours and do the work you are contracted to do. If the employer feels your work is not up to standards, they can terminate your contract with notice or make deductions to performance bonuses, but they can’t pay you less than what you are contracted to be paid for your base salary.
Sorry, I do not have any links to government sites.
Yes, it is optional and I am planning not to sign up for this one. It would be nice to see what the content is though. I was just wondering about the legality more in case in future there is another training that may not be optional.
It’s illegal to take it out of your base salary.
Is it something that if you don’t reach a certain level of improvement, you should pay the cost of training by yourself?
@tando We don’t know the full cost of the training, we are just told what the penalty amount will be but yes, if you don’t reach a certain level, they will quote: "amount of NTD [AMOUNT HERE] discounted in the payroll, if one of the following situations occurs:
Is this a passive way of getting you to move on?
@flatlandr it is sent to all the staff, so I doubt it, this one is optional to participate but not sure going forward.
Articles 22 and 26 of labor standards act may be related to this.
Articl 22 says wages shall be paid in full, unless otherwise agreed to by both parties.
Article 26 says an employer shall not make advanced deduction of wages as penalty for breach of contract or as indemnity.
I’m not sure your situation comes under those cases, because it is an optional training offered by your company with certain conditions.
They may be using this one as basis for this penalty
If you agree to take a pay cut, you agree to take a pay cut. (You can’t agree to go below the minimum wage if applicable.)
If they do this again but make it compulsory, then it’s a pay cut you haven’t agreed to, so that’s a problem.
I recommend talking to the labor department.