Question: Paid Annual Leave

Hey Everyone,

I’m new to teaching in Taiwan. I work as a Foreign English Teacher at three public elementary schools. My main school which handles paying me my salary and signing off on my paid leave told me they didn’t know how many days they could give me for paid leave (the contract says I am entitled to 12 days of paid annual leave). I find this pretty dodgy correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think they can decide to change how many days I get for paid leave. I’m still waiting for lawyers to contact me about this but I thought I would ask about it here as well. I apologize for sounding like a noob but what options do I have-- if I have to fight them for my full entitled paid leave?. And what happens to the days you didn’t use?. I’ve done plenty of research but not sure how relevant they are to my case now.

I would reach out and bring your contract to your local labour affairs centre before going to any lawyers.

They can definitively tell you if it is correct or not under the Labour Standards Act. And they are free.

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You have a contract. It says 12 days paid leave. Your school doesn’t decide how many days they’ll let you take. They can, however, request that you take the leave during school breaks. But you’re entitled to your 12 days

They can also just read the Labor Standards Act, as minimum leave with respect to service period is literally written in there (Article 38).

12 days probably exceeds what’s written in the LSA though (judging from what OP wrote about being new here), so I guess this is more of a contractual thing like @nz said.

That is right, but it can be easy to confuse as some articles only apply to salaried workers. Especially about vacation.

For least confusion, I always recommend to talk to Labour Affair Centre officials.

Since when are public school teachers covered by the LSA?

(Still, Marco is right that contacting the labor department is a good idea.)

Thanks everyone! The contract says I’m entitled to 12 days of paid annual leave taken during winter and summer vacation when classes and camp isn’t in session. I do believe the school don’t have the authority to decide that they could give me less than what the contract says. I made some calls today and will talk to a foreign consultant tomorrow morning to receive free legal assistance. Hopefully, it can be confirmed that the employer can’t change the conditions whenever they want. Again thanks for the fast replies!

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Did you start your contract late? I believe most public school contracts are from August-July or something similar and have a clause to prorate the PTO and bonuses based on the actual start date.

When I started at public school 2 years ago, I signed my first contract in March. But it was still the normal contract that is based on August-July. Because I didn’t start in August my PTO, sick days, and bonus were all prorated.

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I had to arrive late because of COVID and my leave was prorated down to 10. My annual incentive was also prorated down, that part is in the standard contract if you look (I’m pretty sure all the contracts are the same at the public school level)

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I signed the contract early but I did start late. My contract doesn’t mention about paid leave being prorated that’s the confusing part but the main school hasn’t bothered to tell me anything either. It would’ve been nice if it was thoroughly explained. When they discussed it with me in the beginning it was more of a “we’ll see if the other schools agree to it” situation. The other schools actually likes me so they don’t have a problem with it. I was told they were going to get back to me after “talking” to my other schools first. It’s been over two months they still didn’t inform me.

The director of the main school has been avoiding me for the past few weeks after the meeting with the two schools. I know he didn’t bring it up so I can “forget” about it they do this every week. Recently, he found out my two other schools supported me teaching a different subject from the one his school wanted me to teach, so he has been petty and salty since then making sure he inconvenience me as much as possible. It’s been annoying to deal. This school has been too sketchy with certain things I don’t really trust them. They have abused the functions of the program the year before and mistreated their last foreign teacher too. I only learned about this last month.

Are you working through a recruiter? If you have a contract with a recruiter they may be required to assist you with this. There should be a clause about grievances in there? Unless the contracts do vary? But I’m confused because I thought the contracts were drafted by the Moe not the schools

Yeah I believe the contract did come from a draft of the MOE’s contract according to one admin teacher, but this city puts their own spin on it too so it’s a bit messy to track the original source. The contract is under Teach Taiwan which they do function like a recruiting company but I’m not sure if they are registered as one. In the contract it does say that they would resolve certain issues but when the school was being iffy with paid leave right in my coordinator’s face she didn’t even know how to deal with them. She is too noob and passive so she hasn’t been of much help contract wise. That’s why I have to ask the MOL or labor law experts myself.

In this case I think you should talk to Teach Taiwan again. Tell your coordinator that you want to raise a dispute and tell the coordinator that if they refuse they will also be in breach of their contract. That means both parties will end up getting roped into mediation which I’m sure they wouldn’t be very happy about. This is what I would do if I was having these issues.

Like others have said, you can also contact the labor department which I’ve done when I worked for a cram school in the past. This will certainly ruffle some feathers but if you stick to your guns there’s not much anyone at the school can do about it. Hopefully it can get resolved during the mediation. If it’s in the contract, than that’s what they agreed to. If they expect you to follow what you agreed to, they should also be expected to follow their end.

Yeah thanks for your advice I appreciate it. I’ll confirm it with my two other schools to have my back on this, so that the main school can’t use the excuse “we still need to talk to them”. I’ll call the foreign consultant at the local MOL too. If the MOL can confirm that the contract must be followed through then I will bring it up to the school. They haven’t outright refuse yet but I’m planning on being prepared in case they do make excuses. If they won’t budge then I will request assistance from Teach Taiwan if that don’t work I guess they can go through the trouble of mediation. I’ve read that normally employers can’t change clauses without the employee’s consent we’ll find out.

The contract did mention about the year-end bonus being prorated nothing about the paid leave being prorated. They could’ve negotiated with me about getting the days prorated but they didn’t. It’s a problem when they try to avoid it altogether. My other schools are fine with me getting the 12 days of paid leave so the problem is with the main school not wanting to give it to me. I have already talked to someone from the MOL in my city. He said the schools have to follow the contract if they wanted to change anything my agreement was required. They can’t do whatever they want. And if we don’t use all the days then it should be paid out to us at the end of the year. I guess good luck to me negotiating with them.

That’s interesting. Does your contract mention this? I know mine doesn’t and schools in my city don’t do this. I was under the impression that since it’s not mentioned in the contract and public school teachers aren’t under the LSA, then we just forfeit them.

Different cities and district most likely would do different things. I’m not too sure if it’s a definite yes on being paid for days you didn’t use I’ve been told various things. It is best for you take all the paid leave you’re entitled to. From what I understood whether the days get prorated or not they have to tell you and get your consent otherwise it would be breaching the contract. Employers can’t change anything in the contract without your approval if they do that you can request for mediation.

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Oh! They told me that I don’t get paid for unused leave!! I’ll bring it up at my school too

You sure it’s not in contract to prorate the leave? I just double checked and mine explicitly states it is in an asterisk

Edit: in a clause it even is explicit how the paid leave is calculated

Yeah, I’ve already checked the contract plenty of times over the last few months. There is no clause for paid leave being prorated. It does say to refer to the Appendix (D & E) but those sections only explain bank leave, sick leave, and unpaid leave. They did model the contract after your typical public school contract but omitted the part about paid leave being prorated. Things turned out like this so the situation should be in my favor. Also, this is only the second year they have the FET program in this city. Like I said before they tend to put their own spin on their contracts too. Therefore clauses aren’t always identical to your typical public school contract. I’m not mad about it that they can’t prorate it or give me less than what the contract says lol.