Do international schools in Taiwan fall under local labor laws that mandate overtime pay for mandatory work beyond 40 hours in a work week?
if a teacher of private school is an additional staff who does administrative work in addition to teaching, the teacher is under LSA.
if the teacher is within fixed number of staff members, regulations for public school teachers may be applied.
I didn’t know that the Ministry of Education set labor laws for teachers. I’d expect all professions to fall under the Ministry of Labor.
I know that international schools do not fall under the Ministry of Education. Do they still need to follow their labor laws?
if the teacher is a foreigner, matters regarding the management and rights and obligations of the teachers at schools for international residents, shall be conducted in accordance with the related regulations of the particular foreign country whose citizens the school provides education for in accordance with that country’s education system.
When you say “international school,” are you referring to fully accredited international schools like TAS, or local private schools that use “international” in their name, such as Yuteh or KCIS?
For teachers working at well-established international schools like TAS, employment contracts and working conditions typically follow regulations aligned with those in the school’s home country.
However, many people are confused by the “international” label. Some schools that call themselves international are, in fact, local private schools. These schools usually fall under Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act (LSA) with standard labor contracts, even if the school claims otherwise, and are not directly governed by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
There is also a type of “teaching-only” contract that appears to fall under the MOE’s purview rather than the Ministry of Labor (MOL). These contracts provide only the basic rights and protections under the LSA for areas not explicitly covered by the Teacher’s Act or other related legislation. They primarily apply to teaching responsibilities and are less common, especially for K-12 teaching, because they focus exclusively on teaching duties without encompassing additional responsibilities.
A teaching-only contract specifies teaching periods per week (e.g., 20 teaching periods) and does not require teachers to perform tasks outside of those periods. Responsibilities like meetings, professional development, monitoring students, tutoring, mentoring, planning, parent conferences, or mandatory campus presence outside of teaching periods would not be covered. If such additional requirements exist, it is not a true teaching-only contract. Moreover, if a teacher is required to remain on campus beyond the specified teaching periods, the school should technically compensate them for overtime under the LSA.
In contrast, a standard labor contract is more structured, detailing working hours (e.g., Monday to Friday, 9–5), rules for clocking in, overtime, penalties, and other employment terms.
Interestingly, some private schools seem to exploit a gray area by issuing contracts that blend aspects of both types without meeting the minimum standards of either. For instance:
• Teachers may be told they must work unpaid overtime hours or attend events outside regular hours.
• Schools might claim these obligations are covered by a teaching-only contract, but unless specific dates and times are listed in advance, the LSA requires these hours to be compensated. Vague phrases like “xx hours per semester” don’t comply.
• Some contracts labeled as “teaching-only” include teaching periods, specific working hours, clock-in requirements, and penalties for lateness, making it difficult to argue they are teaching-only contracts.
Leave entitlements are another area where private schools often fail to meet legal standards. For example, under the LSA, employees have the right to apply for personal leave, annual leave, and other types of leave, which the employer cannot deny without strong justification. Schools may try to claim that their operational needs, such as maintaining classroom continuity, give them the authority to reject leave requests arbitrarily, but this is not compliant with the law. Leave is the employee’s right, and blanket policies denying leave requests without specific, legally valid reasons do not meet the required standard.
Additionally, annual leave is another area of concern. Under the LSA, unused annual leave must either roll over to the following year or be compensated financially. If a school does not allow for rollover or compensation, the leave cannot legally be considered “annual leave” under the LSA. These discrepancies often leave teachers unaware that they are not receiving their full entitlements.
It seems that some private schools attempt to create hybrid contracts that selectively pick terms from both teaching-only and labor contracts, but fail to provide the full benefits of either. Teachers should carefully review contracts to ensure compliance with legal protections, including overtime, working hours, and leave entitlements. Now, if there were only somewhere we could all refer to that provides correct, legible, and explicit rules, regulations, dos, don’ts, cans, cannots so we could all know our basic rights
By gum, there is such a place. It’s called a lawyer’s office. They typically charge NT$6,000/ hour.
It’s a shame that foreign teachers can’t organize themselves into a union with some dues. The union could hire an employment firm to draft up some guidance and arrange for some lawyers to be trained up in the big cities so that consultations on specific agreements would not take more than an hour or so.
This is actually something the future New Immigrant Commission might be able to help with in the future. Although it might take some work to get them to focus on it.