What changed your mind?
[quote=“robinhood5000”]* * *
Where does the law stand on the Hess “break your contract” fine.
[/quote] [Forumosa - Taiwan's largest and most active Taiwan-oriented global online community in English … 96#p848496](The Hess fine
[quote=“lupillus”]Setting terms for breaking a contract is not illegal. You have to give that amount of notice and also pay them the fine.
They can’t deduct it from your pay, and they can’t withhold your pay, but they can sue you for the amount you agreed to in the contract.
[/quote] [Forumosa - Taiwan's largest and most active Taiwan-oriented global online community in English … 10#p848510](The Hess fine - #2 by lupillus
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]I didn’t pay the Hess fine when I quit. Sure, they tried to intimidate me on a number of occasions in a number of different ways. It worked on some people I knew, who lost sleep over it, but I treated the whole thing like a game from the outset and I think I approached it in the right way.
Hess isn’t allowed to fine you up front though.
Hess had to return the money they fined me. It was then up to them to try to get that money back from me.
Of course, they will threaten to take you to court. If you bow to their pressure or you let it get that far then you haven’t fought correctly. The object is not to win, but in classic guerrilla fashion, to make it so expensive for them to win that it’s not worth them winning.
I ignored their letters or e-mails or stalled them, forcing them to send more, thus allocating more resources to my problem.
I took them to meetings with the CLA, during which they had three people (one of whom was a lawyer, I think) present, who had to travel from Taipei. Thus, I tied up more of their resources. I threatened further meetings and mediations, which would have tied up even more of their resources.
Don’t get emotional, and don’t let them intimidate you: bleed them until they can’t afford to win.[/quote] [Forumosa - Taiwan's largest and most active Taiwan-oriented global online community in English … 52#p863352](The Hess fine - #24 by GuyInTaiwan
Firstly, if you have read my entire situation with Hess, you will know that they were dishonest with me. They coerced me into doing things that weren’t in the contract and that they explicitly lied about on several occasions (and the main point of contention, the unpaid overtime, was also explicitly written in one of their manuals at the time). As such, they were the ones who broke the contract. I was merely trying to get out of what they had already broken. They were the ones who acted in bad faith. It’s not even like they acted in bad faith after we had signed the contract. It turned out to be standard operating procedure for them, which makes me believe that they never had any intention of acting in good faith.
Secondly, what they did was also against the labour laws as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act.