Once again your post leaves me mystified.
[quote=âTaiwan Luthiersâ]They probably deserve the bad wage anyways. Anytime some news article about wages or employment comes up the comment section is full of accusation of the Ma Administration pandering to the big business interests and not really caring about the common people. What they also said is that whenever a labor right demonstration comes up everyone will say they will come, but when it happens few shows up.
I think thatâs the big problem, the culture is far too passive to affect any change, so those in power will use that to keep things in order. Workers complain that their wages are too low, deductions too high (any sick days, days off, etc. are severely penalized), yet no one will even organize and bargain collectively. Not sure if its legal climate or something but if even 20% of a companyâs workforce decided to stop they will have to listen. Sure they can just go hire someone else but that takes time, meaning missed deadline and fines. Some say the average Taiwanese is too selfish to care about the social condition.[/quote]
Thatâs the key. IMHO as long as people donât grow some balls and unionize they deserve the meagre salary and bad vacation schedule they are offered. If you act like a dog, people treat you like a dog. Be thankful for the crumbs you get.
Only strikes and unions are the language big corporations understand, but as Taiwan Luthiers said: people talk about it but never show up, instead they rat out those who do to the boss in hopes for a 300 NT$ raise of their monthly salary.
What makes me angry is when people demand the government to fix the situation, a situation they are simply too much of a coward to take care of. Is it the governmentâs job to negotiate salaries of private corporations? I donât think so. But then again Morakot was also the fault of the government and not the fault of Southern hillbillies planting binlang trees in the mountains.
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This baffles me every time. Taiwanese companies treat their employees with the minimal benefits they are bound by law to give them.
Recent example:
The amount of paid day offs is given by how long you have worked for the company. It is regulated by law how much is the minimum. And many companies use the absolute minimum.
Not only that. They use the exact date you started and calculate the day off by the hours based on the minimal requirement.
So if you get like 68 hours they divide it by 8 daily work hours and you get like 8,5 paid days off for that year. 
You really want to treat your workers like that? Cutting as many hours off from the vacations as legally possible. It is already ridiculously low. 
I think this practice is questionable.
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and they donât pay you the bonus if you quit before. At least in my country when you quit they have to pay you the bonus for the months you work in that year.
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Have you wondered why so many people quit right after CNY?
Thatâs why!
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Yes theyâre cheap, but I donât see anyone else setting up a company and offering better wages
Oh yeah I learned how brutally efficient they were at clawing back âbenefitsâ very quickly.
My favourite is the common statement
from Taiwan HR managers when you start negotiating a package ,'we follow the labour law â as if giving the minimum benefits was the expectation of the labour law and every company should follow that . And that âfollowing the labour lawâ was a generous thing to do.
Every which way they can they WILL screw you. The ole 30 days in a working month calculation, know it well , itâs liberally applied when looking to cut your benefits/salary. Any kind of bonus or leave owed, they will whip that calculator out ! Employees are an expense to be cost down like any other.
The HR managers actually go to training sessions where they share tips on how to cut down these costs and avoid restrictions introduced by new laws. Iâm owed a few days pay for untaken personal leave but I fully expect it to be divided by 30 using the ole switcheroo calculator.
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HR at any company is not there to help the employee. They are there to save the company from having to pay you what they owe you.
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All Taiwan HR calculators just have this function ready to press Go.
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True. So true that it hurts.
I always find it funny how the government keeps talking about getting talent, retaining talent, getting high quality foreign talent through schemes like gold card, when there is a simpler answer⌠treat employees properly, give enough vacation days, good wages and all the Taiwanese working abroad will be flocking back home.
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