First time posting to this.
A little about my situation.
I was employed by a company which pays me hourly (alternating hours so one week regular hours and one week late hours) since May 7,2021.
I was “terminated” on September 17,2021.
But accordingly to the MOFA, I will be technically terminated on the 27th due to me past three months.
The company is so small that they had to outsource people to calculate our salary (first in Ukraine then to PHP) and they never got my salary right.
Now the boss said the severance is only 4 “regular” hours days when I know for a fact it is 10 days.
Oh the best part, on the contract that he signed, I will be working an average of 9/9.5 hours for both normal/late hours and even if he said 4 hours, he only paid me 22.5 hours which is NOT 24 hours.
2 questions:
1.) the severance pay is separated into two parts, calculations based on the “average” monthly salary (as I have been pushing OT due to the amount of work they have gave me), and the “xx” day notice which is paid right?
2.) Since i was technically officially terminated on the 27th, and since it has been over 30 days from the termination date and they still can’t get the severance pay (PLUS my salary calculated correctly）which is very simple as it is just basic EXCEL, how should I proceed?
Oh the best part, since the time I was there, I seen them hire 3 people and let go of two (basically maintaining a office of 3 employees.)
If it is, your “wage” and your “average wage” for severance purposes are both defined in LSA Art. 2.
And then the severance pay calculation is set by Art. 17.
That would be the notice period for an Art. 11/13/14 termination, as set by Art. 16. The payment for that period is part of your wage, not severance pay. (Exception: if the employer insists on terminating the contract immediately even though a notice period is required, pay in lieu of notice is added to the severance pay. Remember that severance pay is “separation income” and therefore tax free.)
This is likely to cause confusion.
Instead, add everything together – everything you actually earned during the calculation period (which includes the notice period*), all the overtime, all the holiday pay, any regular allowances or predefined bonuses that are technically part of your “wage” even if the employer doesn’t call them that – to get the total wage and then do the math as the LSA says. There are also official clarifications from the Ministry of Labor about how many days there are in a month for severance pay purposes and so on. Ask a lawyer or someone at the labor department if in doubt.
In theory you earn 5% annual interest on any debt if no other interest rate is agreed upon, though in practice when you sue, the court calculates the interest based on the date of filing, not the date when payment was originally due. You can still point it out to them of course (Civil Code Art. 203).
The easiest way to proceed is to request mediation through the labor department. You can also request a labor inspection. If you still don’t get paid, take them to court.
If your income and assets are low enough, you can get a free lawyer.
*If there is pay in lieu of notice, is it included when calculating the average wage? I honestly don’t remember. But if you worked during the notice period, you can definitely include the pay for that period in the calculation.
Hello. Yes. On the contract they said they will abide by the labor standards. I’m just trying to get is it correct that they are only required to pay 4 normal working hours when that week I would be working late shift.
I’m confused about which jobs are under the LSA. Are teachers included in that? (They’re not listed, but there’s a pleasantly /s vague thing about “other” in there). Expat info about Taiwan seems to imply that the LSA is the bare bottom minimum for any worker, but the Taiwan laws page is much less clear.
Buxiban teachers, yes. Private school teachers, it depends. Public school teachers, no.
The “other” category has been updated a zillion times and now includes something like 95% of the private sector (but usually excluding independent contractors – that’s another story). The MOL keeps a full list somewhere.
If anyone can find the list, it would be greatly appreciated. I fear my employer has decided to take its aggression out on me and I worry that I don’t have any rights to tell them to go eff themselves…
You currently work for a buxiban, don’t you? If so, you are covered. They can’t dispute that unless they claim it’s not a 勞動契約, and if you have a normal work permit through them, good luck to them with that strategy.
The labor department can provide more information.
I’m at a private day school. I’m in the process of getting my APRC, so my current ARC says “looking for work” (6 month extension). I assume they still needed to apply for a work permit for me to be working there legally, but immigration told me I didn’t need to replace the ARC status with the APRC on the way. The school reports my income (albeit getting creative about “overtime”) anyway… Since not all teachers are covered by the LSA, I’m wondering if my private school/job is covered. Do I just call 1999 and ask? That’s who I called when I complained about the labor violations in the first place.
You can try asking them. I would ask at the labor department.
Since you’re a private school teacher, it comes down to the definition of responsibilities other than teaching. If there’s any ambiguity in your case, you should talk to an expert.
I have to wonder what “non teaching” responsibilities are defined as, other than administrative? Because we’re responsible for supervising the kids in the hallway while they put backpacks away, accompanying them to recess, supervising lunch, and supervising clubs, but that’s not “administrative”, though in the US there are other, hired/volunteer for that purpose staff that do many of those things (who are not teachers) so the teacher aren’t the only people looking after the kids for nine hours straight. The school could easily claim that’s a “teaching responsibility”. I will absolutely call the MOL on Monday and ask. I’ll likely be quitting by Monday night if I’m not covered by the LSA and can’t fight for the thousands of unpaid overtime I thought I’d accrued
Called. They said the max 40 hour work week and max 8 hour day applies to everyone, including private school teachers. Anything over that means overtime pay (that’s my main focus, I realize there are other rights in there that other teachers may be concerned about) * deep breaths *
