Hi everyone!
I am very happy I found this forum, looks like a lot of friendly people at one place 
I was reading in the last couple of days and have a question now.
I have a non-teaching job offer from a Taiwanese company willing to hire me and provide me work ARC, but the contract they ask me to sign is with 5 years duration and the penalty of breaking the contract is 500 000 NTD. 
That seems like a very long time and a lot of money to me, what do you think? The salary is nothing special, offering around 40 000 NTD, even not sure if that will be enough to survive for a month in Taipei. :neutral:
I really want the job, but not the contract, so I am thinking what to do now.
I have a Taiwanese girlfriend and want to move temporary in Taipei.
I want to hear if similar contracts are common in Taiwan and maybe some advice?
Best Regards and I hope I will meet some of you soon 
Donāt work for that company!
Minimum salary for foreign white collars is 48,000nt$ I think. So I doubt they could get you an ARC for only 40k.
And a penalty of 500k if you donāt work a full 5 years?!?!?! Thatās insane!!!
Itās like signing your soul to the devil!
Tell them to go F*** themeselves and search for a proper company!
Thanks for your answer Markova.
As I found out, there is a law in Taiwan stating that a contract cannot be longer than 3 years, so I can talk and try to convince them to sign a 3 year one.
The company stated that the penalty is high because the position is handing with personal client data and thus there is risk involved.
Every employees will at some point handle clientsās data.
They are just trying to slave you to their company.
First your salary might not be high enough to apply an ARC and in all honesty, to punish you with a 500k fine for leaving the company before 5 years with a monthly salary of only 40k itās just ridiculous!
You will have to live little to be able to purchase your freedom back from your master.
I know itās ridiculous, thatās the reason I opened this topic, so other people can share their opinion because I am not familiar with Taiwanese work contracts and I wanted to ask if this is normal there or not.
Can you tell me how the normal contract for a foreigner for IT position should look? They mentioned that they are not familiar with the law for foreigners and I should search.
I think they can increase the salary to 48k so they can apply for the ARC, but I am still wondering if that is a good salary or not.
What is the average salary in Taiwan for IT for a person with few years of experience?
As far as the penalty, although it might be legally binding, you would always have the option to refuse to pay it and ask arbitration to your local labor office. 500k is such an outrageous amount that thereās no way they could force you to pay that. Iād be surprised youād even have to pay one 10th.
Secondly, as other said, the minimum for white collar professionals is 48k. And 40k in Taipei is not a decent offer anyway.
The ānot familiar with laws specific to foreignersā is standard BS they use when they try to get you accept things that arenāt legal for locals. The truth is, if itās not legal for locals, itās not for you either. Thereās no labor standards specific to foreigners. Just special requirements to be allowed to employ us, or notice to give to the immigration if we quit/are laid off.
You can read this thread for a little more info, although not directly related: forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=131004
A standard contract would be (from my limited experience):
- 48k minimum
- 1 year duration
- no penalty for breaking the contract (and when thereās one itās usually less than a month; but you could still think about disputing it later)
Anyway, a company that approaches you with that sort of contract is a big red flag.