On March 21, 2024, I submitted a formal letter of resignation to my school, with an effective date of May 20, 2024, which is 60 days notice as per my contract. On March 25, 2024, my supervisor asked me if I’d be willing to leave before May 20. I told him no. Today, on March 26, 2024, I had a meeting with three individuals, who are now threatening legal action if I don’t leave on April 12, 2024.
Has anyone experienced anything similar?
Legal action on the basis of what?
What city/county you live in?
That’s what I’d like to know. They’re simply refusing to accept my resignation because they’d prefer not to pay me until May 20.
I’m in Taichung. I’ve just made an appointment with Legal Aid.
You don’t need to go to legal aid immediately. Go to Taichung’s city hall and talk to their labour affairs office first. It’s free. They will even help mediate for you. Your employer probably has illegal provisions in your contract anyways or has done something illegal.
Yes, like illegally hiring foreigners to teach English to kindergarten students…
Thank you, I’ll look into that.
Not saying you were doing anything illegal but if you were it might be best to be careful in what you tell government agencies about the nature of your work if it was outside of your work permit permissions
I would doubt that they would waste money suing an English teacher over a few days unless they were very spiteful and even then for what damages exactly?
They must have your replacement lined up and he or she cant wait two months.
I’m a licensed English teacher with a M.Ed., and I’ve been teaching Grades 1-3.
Prior to offering my resignation, I had never received either a verbal or written warning. Now I think what the school is trying to do is issue warnings post-resignation letter to justify terminating my contract.
I mean, illegal in regards to you and your relationship. Like unlawful dismissal.
If they want you out so badly, maybe a severance is on the cards, extra few months of pay for nothing. Go first to labour affairs.
Got it. Do I need to make an appointment online? I’m currently on the Labour Affairs Bureau website, and it’s incredibly confusing to navigate.
No no. You’re confusing the labour affairs bureau of the national government with the labour affairs office found inside the local city or county. Just show up and talk to them first.
Labour Affairs mediation judgements are not binding unless both parties agree, but are extremely influential in court.
Definitely make sure you get a severance package. The number I put out with a former employer had the mediator’s eyebrows raised so high…when my former employer and their awful lawyer went outside to discuss my terms, the mediator literally told me that what I was asking for was insane. And yet…
Got it. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. Can you be more specific? How much did you ask for and what did you ultimately get?
Mine was two months of salary based off the average(mean) salary of the last six months.
I asked for what I would have gotten if I had stayed until the end of the contract, which was about 4-5 months. But I was also fighting with them about the insane amount of overtime I’d been expected to work previously (that’s why I dragged them in to the mediation in the first place), so it was really the “overtime pay” that I would have been owed, had I been working in a school that didn’t fall under the private schools act (which basically absolves schools of any and all labor law following). Note that cram schools fall under the LSA