I need some quick legal advice.
my wife was given a very low bonus this year. she was given 1/3 of what she was given last year. when asked why they just dilly dallied aroundt the point. Finally she made a lot of noise and spoke with the owner. He said that she deserved a bigger bonus but he will not go against the decision of hte manager in question.
Finally he sent her a memo stating that he gave her a low bonus becasue she took a month maternity leave and has to pump breast milk on company time. He put it in wrting on company memo he wrote to her.
I know that a bonus is considered free money but her job states a certain bonus amount in leu of decent pay but in small print it does say that it can be adjusted.
the government wants to encourage people to have babies and to breast feed but her company is penalizing her for it.
by the way,
the money she lost on the bonus is exactly the same amount she recievd from insurance,paid leave and a red envelope from all the employees. I think they calculated that in and figured she got hers already.
we dont want to sue or threaten but I would like her to go into the ofice and explain her options for recourse so maybe they will think twice next time.
Article 50 of the Labor Standards Law says that women get 8 weeks paid vacation for maternity leave if they worked for their employee for more than six months. You get half pay if you’ve worked for less than 6 months.
Article 18 of the Gender Equality Law says women get 1 hour of breast feeding per day until their child is one year old.
Article 33 of the same law says you can file a complaint about maternity leave or breast feeding with your local labor authorities. In Taipei City that would be the Department of Labor, which has a special commission for enforcing the Gender Equality Law. Their number is 02-2728-7023. They appear to offer advice on what to do, so you might try talking to them first and seeing what they think you should do. They tend to be very much on the employee’s side.
Other cities and counties should have similar commissions let me know if you need help finding yours.
Listen to this man. He speaks not with a forked tongue. There is no excuse for this and your wife should be preparing for some arse-kicking. This is not some kind of “set up a deal with your boss” scenario – it is the law and it is very clear-cut. I’m speaking from personal experience here. you do not require the services of a lawyer. The laboour affairs commission will be only too happy to jump on your case if my experience is anything to go by.
This is the crux isn’t it? What do you mean “in lieu of decent pay”? Does the contract (or the law) specify what bonus she should get, and under what circs it can be reduced?
Since bonuses vary on a lot of criteria, it is hard to say what kind of bonus is to be expected. However, if everyone else got, for example, 1 months pay as bonus, and the one employee did not, that would be a good indication that there must be some reason to give a different bonus. If the payment of a bonus is written into the contract, there would have to be a good reason why one person was given less than others.
Unfortunately for the manager in this case, they have provided a written statement that 1) the bonus was less and 2) that the lower amount was due to maternity leave and breast milk pumping. Since paying someone less due to pregnancy or breast milk pumping is illegal, they have pretty much admitted on paper that they broke the law. Even if they admitted only part 1, that would be enough to at least lodge a complaint.
