Hi everyone. So I’ve been here for about a month and am still on my 90 day stamp on my passport while waiting for my job to process my ARC. While I love living in the city, the job which I secured from abroad is an absolute nightmare. I’m regularly asked to come in two unpaid hours before teaching and in order to get my lessons written in their format, I’m looking at many more unpaid hours. Also the regulations of the school are absurdly meticulous and nitpicky. This isn’t my first teaching job, and I know well enough to know that this school is a losing situation. I’m highly qualified and know I can do better than this and even have other interviews lined up, but I need to break the contract which I stupidly signed upon arrival.
Unfortunately, the contract stipulates that I must serve out a 60 day notice period and that they may be able to deduct money or even go after me in court as a punitive response for breaking my contract which would cause them to potentially need to cancel classes. What I’m wondering is, what’s the most efficient way to get out of this without having to be subject to legal action and not end up on some employment blacklist.
do you know exactly at what stage of the procedure to get your ARC they are? Did they already have your work permit when you started teaching? If not yet, they are/were requesting you to work illegally, so I think you can quit right now without the 60 day notice period.
See Article 14 of labor standard act.
If they already had your work permit, you cannot quit right now without the agreed penalty unless it is unreasonable amount, but they cannot directly deduct it from your salary, I think.
See Article 26 of LSA.
I’d recommend you to check labor standard act, or @yyy might kindly explain the details.
If they’re requiring you to be present for office hours but only paying you for teaching hours, you have a case for unpaid wages (see LSA Art. 22 Par. 2). As you haven’t been there very long, the amount you could claim is probably quite small, but if they refuse to ameliorate the situation, and if they are committing other violations, you may have grounds for an Art. 14 termination (i.e. be able to quit and not pay the breach penalty – and even claim a very small amount of severance pay).
I recommend discussing the matter with your local labor department and/or a lawyer. We also have several past threads about this type of situation. The labor department can set up a mediation session, though it usually takes a few weeks if you want a proper mediator (one who works for the department).
If you don’t have grounds for an Art. 14 termination, you can at least be assured that the breach penalty – unless you agree to pay it – can only be enforced by a civil court judgement, which would cost your employer several tens of thousands of NT on legal advice. If the court considers the penalty excessive, it will reduce it.
Well, I walked in and resigned on the spot under the reason that I wouldn’t be working illegally without a work permit/arc in hand. They told me that my work permit had been processed, but then it got shady when he said he’d have it tomorrow, but then switched to we’ll have it by the end of the week in the same conversation. He also said it was legal to work while waiting for a permit since it had been filed on the first day of my contract. He informed me that I wouldn’t be able to work in Taiwan anymore, but didn’t go into detail why. Now he’s asking me to hand in a resignation letter this evening, should I bother? Would it be better to hold off? Cheers and thanks for your response Tando.
@yyy@RickRoll Thanks for your replies. Yeah, definitely seems to be the case of an illegal hire since no work permit has been given and the only thing in my passport is an entry stamp. Just had a meeting with him and he asked me for my letter of termination of contract but then refused to provide any documentation of the dates of my employment or a mutually signed form of termination of contract when I asked for those as a reciprocal, so I could get my ARC released. Not that I expected him to actually do it, but hey, worth a shot. Going to the CLA tomorrow to sort this out.
A request to work illegally is unenforceable, and working without a work permit (or exemption through marriage etc.) makes you deportable. Don’t do any more work for this employer.
Going to the CLA tomorrow to sort this out.
The CLA is now the Ministry of Labor. I assume you’re going to your local labor department.
Thanks YYY, one additional question I have is, if I walk into my local labour department, should I admit that I have worked for the last two weeks for this company? Or would that be basically setting myself up for deportation, regardless of having quit yesterday? I don’t want to lie to them, especially if they might find out I’ve worked there upon further investigation.
Technically you’re still in trouble, but I doubt you’ll face any danger from them. That said, unless you’re applying for mediation or requesting an inspection, there’s no need to say which friend of yours has this problem. (You’re friends with yourself, right?)
