[quote=“Reaperjim”]I have been asked to rewrite a contract for a school that closely adheres to Taiwan law. I am not entirely familiar with labor law in Taiwan, and so I need help with ascertaining the legality of a few articles that I have found within the contract, some of which appear to be clangers.
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In the event of a breach of contract that warrants termination, the school can withhold one month’s salary. Basically, if you are fired for X reason in breach of contract, whatever that reason may be, they don’t have to pay you for your last month of work. This seems farcical because while I have no experience with Taiwan’s labor law, I graduated in law back in the UK and studied some of UK employment law.
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They have a pension fund, and if you are entitled to claim on it, but you die, your spouse only gets half and they keep the rest.
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There are no articles within the contract that represent statutory days for personal or sick leave. Nor maternity or paternity leave.
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The Chinese version overrules the English version if there are discrepancies in translation.[/quote]
Short answers:
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No.
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Maybe.
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Oh boy…
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Sure, why not?
Long answers:
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Article 26 of the Labor Standards Act prohibits this. They can include a breach penalty in the contract, but they’ll have to pay the salary first and then pursue the penalty. If a court considers it too high, it will be reduced.
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Taiwan has a pension system that excludes foreigners by default. (Basically, you can only join if you have/had a Taiwanese spouse.) I don’t know the details, but it seems to be all mixed up with labor insurance and employment insurance (the latter of which also excludes foreigners by default), so you’d better check the laws and ask an expert. If you just ask an expert, you might get the wrong information because it doesn’t always occur to them that foreigners are handled differently.
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The Ministry of Labor has a handy list of leave and holidays here for the LSA and associated regulations:
mol.gov.tw/topic/3067/14530/19538/
Quick summary:
例假 = regular days off (1 out of every 7, switching to 2 out of every 7 on Jan 1), paid in some cases (basically not paid but not deducted either)
國定假日 = national holidays (including “memorial days” for now but possibly changing on Jan 1), 17 holidays including 1 3-day holiday (CNY) = 19 days in total, paid
特別休假 = “special leave” or paid annual leave, depends on length of service
婚嫁 = marriage leave, 8 days, paid
喪假 = bereavement leave, 3 to 8 days depending on who died, paid
普通傷病假 = normal sick leave, 30 days per year but bla bla bla… sometimes paid
公傷病假 = occupational sick leave, depends…
事假 = personal leave (“thing leave”), 14 days per year, unpaid
公假 = public leave, depends…
AND a less handy list here for the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and associated regulations:
mol.gov.tw/topic/6026/13172/13174/22977/
Briefly,
產假 = maternity leave, 8 weeks normally, also shorter durations in the event of an early miscarriage, pay depends on length of service
陪產假 = paternity leave, 5 days, paid
育嬰留職停薪 = parental leave (“raise baby keep job stop salary”), basically up to 2 years, unpaid
哺乳時間 = breastfeeding time (but also for bottle feeding etc.), 30 minutes per day, twice per day (assuming an 8 hour day), paid
家庭照顧假 = family care leave, 7 days per year but counted as part of personal leave, unpaid
And I can’t find the link but somewhere they must mention the other stuff in that Act,
生理假 = menstrual leave, 1 day per month, counted as sick leave (but proof is not required)
and somewhere they also have “pregnancy checkup leave”. The Act is available in English, but I think there’s a discrepancy about the duration of paternity leave. Which brings us to…
- The Ministry of Justice has the same disclaimer at its online database (law.moj.gov.tw, click on “English”). One party intentionally misleading the other at the time of signing the contract is a valid reason for immediate termination within 30 days of discovering the deception, but the burden of proof would be on the plaintiff. Any part of a contract that falls below the legal minimum standards is void.
There’s a sample contract (Chinese only) somewhere on the Taipei Labor Dept’s website and probably also on the MOL’s website. There are also sample work rules (Chinese, English & Japanese, but the translations are from 2009) on the MOL’s website. This really is a job for a translator or better yet a team. Good luck!