Have they taken photocopies of your passport? Have you signed them? If not then there’s no application in process. I’m not sure (check the legal forum), but I believe you can’t change from study to work without a visa run. If I’m right then you should have done a visa run by now.
Where is your passport anyway?
Taxes CAN be deducted and paid for someone working illegally. I’ve done work for schools that didn’t provide an ARC but did actually pay the tax. I’d forgotten about it, but the tax office had a record of it all the same. If you’ve been here less than six months you won’t get any of that tax money back from the government. The tax rate in that case would be 20% too.
Hmmm, Have they taken 20% out of your 520/hr? Despite what I said above I’ll bet you any money that they can’t provide a receipt to prove that the tax has been paid. Also, as far as I know, you can’t get health insurance through an employer until you’re working there legally. No work permit=no insurance=no need to pay.
I would tell them that you have been advised that you shouldn’t be paying tax because you’re working illegally, and you’re frightened of getting into trouble. This is a good reason to bring the subject up. Naturally, they will have the receipt to show that they did make the payments, or they’ll have some excuse. If the latter then you have grounds to terminate your contract without prejudice. Bollocks, you’re working illegally so there’s nothing to terminate.
I’m starting to actively dislike these people.
Me, I would enquire about my tax money, ask for it back, hand in my notice in the hope of getting that money refunded, call the CLA on payday to put extra pressure on them, take whatever I can get on the day, and run away.
They have no right to complain or penalise you if you’re quitting because they stole your tax money. In that case you have a reasonable right to demand every penny owed for every hour you have worked. And you’re within your rights to quit without notice. (These are not real rights. Your rights are whatever you can get away with.)
If you can pull it off you might make such a pain of yourself that they fire you. Go on strike until they give you back your tax/insurance money and demonstrate that they have started the work visa process. If they can’t do it then tell them that you’re filing an official complaint at the CLA, which has to be investigated and has the force of law even though you don’t need to get a lawyer. There’s an article about it at tealit somewhere.
Sit there and argue politely and reasonably, keep them distracted from everything else, refuse to do any work, don’t let them do any work, keep on asking for it until you get it. It’s not pleasant but it needn’t be dangerous.
Remember, you just want to be paid up to date so you can get on with the life they are depriving you of. That’s a reasonable ambition. There is no need to feel intimidated. You’re just asking for what you deserve, and you can ask for a ruling from the CLA which will be enforced after the school has been investigated. There’s no need for them to attract unwelcome attention, is there?
They will either cave in and pay you off - which happened to me when I had all this grief - or they will try and scare you off. There is nothing to be scared of except physical violence. Blacklisting, cancellation of visa, blah blah blah, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. And they can’t get away with beating you up, 'cos you have a lot of friends and they don’t want a visit from half a dozen big hairy forumosans before you go to the police.
