My Taiwanese friend just got a new job about a month ago. Supposedly, the company is a mid-sized manufacturing firm. Well, yesterday was his first payday and the company didn’t pay him, or anyone else. Stranger still is that 1) management did not explain or say a word to the employees about this before or after, and 2) no one complained to management.
Is non-payment of wages a common occurrence in Taiwan with domestic companies?
When it happens, is this mutual silence also normal?
Any general advice to my Taiwanese friend, without knowing more detail?
My Taiwanese friend just got a new job about a month ago. Supposedly, the company is a mid-sized manufacturing firm. Well, yesterday was his first payday and the company didn’t pay him, or anyone else. Stranger still is that 1) management did not explain or say a word to the employees about this before or after, and 2) no one complained to management.
Is non-payment of wages a common occurrence in Taiwan with domestic companies?
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I don’t think so. When our school was fairly new, we would borrow money to make salary and not take any ourselves.
Again, I don’t think so.
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3) Any general advice to my Taiwanese friend, without knowing more detail?[/quote]
I’d suggest cutting and running as soon as he/she gets his check. Take the loss of a week or two, but it sounds like this company is definitely bad news.
Is non-payment of wages a common occurrence in Taiwan with domestic companies?[/quote]
Actually, yes it is. Many times a boss will give post-dated checks to employees.
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You gotta be kidding? I had the experience as a freelance writer of people just taking the copy and not paying me, but I figured it was just because I was a freelancer.
I think it may be with manufacturing companies (especially if they haven’t received payment for the goods)
Yes. It’s to save “face” for the boss. If the boss admits to not having money, he loses face. If the employees ask the boss about money, the boss loses face.
Check with the other employees to see what they’re going to do. Call up his local legislator/representative or favorite media outlet. (I’m pretty serious, it seems like that’s what these political types do)
See [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/warning-interface-global/893/1 Interface Global saga[/url] for an example of this kind of behaviour. It probably means the boat is sinking. Mind you, it’s amazing how long companies are allowed to get away with late or non-payment of wages, non-payment of labour and health insurance etc - i.e. ripping off their employees. Interfarce has done all that but it is still limping along.
Go make a formal complaint with the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) in Taipei. I’ve had foreign freinds that have had their cases mediated, sometimes being able to recover up to 50% of what is owed them. When my past employer refused to pay my last two weeks of salary based on some weird technicality they made up (i.e. we don’t like you), I threatened to go to the CLA. That shook them up and they paid the next day. The CLA can make a lot of mafan for the HR people/boss of the company, requiring them to ‘come downtown’ for meetings, etc. If the amount of money owed is not too much, the company may opt to pay you rather than spend a couple of days running around and also being potentially fined.