The last typhoon to hit Taiwan came down pretty hard in Taichung and did a fair bit of damage throughout the city. The school I work at was also damaged, one of the gates had to be totally replaced and apparently at a great expense.
All the teachers at my school are on salary and we noticed on our pay that there was a deduction of 1933 NT dolllars due to typhoon. We all complained about this and the school is going to refund us the money. Our contracts do not state anything to the fact that the school can deduct our wage if there is a typhoon.
My question is, is it legal for an employer to deduct our wage if we are on salary due to a typhoon? Management has also told us that next year if we all decide to resign our contracts that there will be a clause stating if there is a typhoon we will not be getting paid for those days eventhough we get paid salary. The strange thing about this is that there was a typhoon in July and we did not have to go to work and we did not suffer a deduction in our pay. The only reason we got deducted this time was because the school suffered damages, a severly broken gate. In addition to this the parents who pay tuition at out school still pay the same fee no matter what. So if there is a typhoon three months in a row they don’t get any of there money back for the days missed and on top of that the teachers will be getting pay deducted. This will all be starting next August. It seems like our employer will be taking money from both paties Teacher and Parents.
Another bone of contention is that the Chinese teachers at my school already have this clause in there contract. So they all lost a portion of there pay for the month of August. They only make about have of what the foreign teachers make and they work just as hard if not harder in some cases.
Any thoughts about how to approach this situation would be appreciated. Also if anyone knows what the CLA states about this I would love to hear it.
I’m sure the CLA won’t do anything as long as they honor the contract. You said they would honor it this time and change the contract next time.
Seems to me that if you feel that strongly about it, your only option is to not sign the new contract. Not that it will affect your employer or make any statement, they will just hire someone elese.
Most places are “You don’t work, for whatever reason, typhoon you don’t get paid.” Unless you have something written into your contract about paid sick days, or paid vacations, then, no teaching, no pay.
That’s just the way it is.
As for the the parents still paying for the typhoon days…wanna bet? Some parents deduct off-days when the next semester comes around; some parents deduct the cost of the afternoon snack because they pack their own. Are you absolutely certain about them still paying for missed days?
I can’t be sure that parents don’t deduct from tutition, but I have a feeling that they still pay the full amount even if they loose days to typhoons.
The thing that rubs me the wrong way is that they will deduct from our salary when they never did this before. This time the school suffered some damage and we have to pay for it. DON’T THEY HAVE INSURANCE FOR THIS KIND OF THING!!! :fume: Come on what’s with that.
[quote][quote=“stare”]I can’t be sure that parents don’t deduct from tutition, but I have a feeling that they still pay the full amount even if they loose days to typhoons.
The thing that rubs me the wrong way is that they will deduct from our salary when they never did this before. [/quote]
I would ask and demand an answer to this.
[quote]
This time the school suffered some damage and we have to pay for it. DON’T THEY HAVE INSURANCE FOR THIS KIND OF THING!!! :fume: Come on what’s with that.
stare[/quote][/quote]
Are you sure they are deducting your salary to pay for this? Or are you putting the two things together? Was there a change in policy in regard to typhoons days now NOT being paid?
You’ve got some legitimate questions here stare. Go ask them and get back to us.
Here’s the deal an important gate was totally damaged in the typhoon. The cost to fix is 20,000 NT$ at least that’s what they tell me. So the foreign teachers had 1933NT$ deducted and the Chinese teachers had 1000 deducted in order to pay for the new gate. I don’t understand why we should have to pay for the gate. The foreign teachers complained about this because nothing was stated about this in our contract. So we are getting our money back but the Chinese teachers aren’t. I also did find out that parents don’t get their money back from typhoons.
In addition to this if you remember there was a typhoon in July and island wide schools were closed down. My school suffered no damage in that typhoon and we got our full pay. Now if you put 2 and 2 together it seems like we’re responsible for typhoon damage.
As I mentioned, in my first post, next August we will be renewing our contracts and there will be a clause that states if there is typhoon we won’t be getting paid.
Stare, I just asked my wife about this. In our school, we do pay salaried positions for typhoon days off. Our FTs are not salaried so they don’t get paid.
It seems to me that your school had a moment of “Let’s be nice and pay them all for the typhoon day off” last time around. This time around, as you say, the gate was damaged, and your school felt that they couldn’t do both…so it LOOKS like they TOOK the money from you to pay for the gate. Is that what really happened, or did they decide they couldn’t afford to be nice and pay salaries for a typhoon day off?
I would think they were dumb to say they were using “your” money to pay for the gate. That makes it sound very bad IMHO. But were they actually doing this? I don’t know… I think no, they aren’t saying your money is going towards the gate, only that you aren’t getting typhoon day off pay this time…possibly BECAUSE of the damage to your school’s gate.
You also say they will write into the new contracts typhoon days off are not paid. IMHO, that is good. No more miscommunication.
I hope this helps…not sure it makes you feel any better though.
Thanks for your HO. This time around they are giving us our money back as it states nothing to the fact in our current contracts. Quite possibly you are right they shouldn’t have said to us that the money was going toward paying for the gate. Just that we had a day off due to typhoon and we won’t be getting paid. Definitely a bad move on their part.
Thanks for everyone’s help on this one. I still feel like up I’m up sh*t creek without a paddle.
[quote=“jdsmith”]Stare, I just asked my wife about this. In our school, we do pay salaried positions for typhoon days off. Our FTs are not salaried so they don’t get paid.
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Since your FTs are not salaried, do you expect them to do prep time for classes? I’m not trying to be a jerk, I’m just wondering what you think.
To the OP. You employer is not required to pay you for the typhoon ‘holiday.’ Most large white collar employers do, but most small businesses in the service industry do not.
If you are a salaried employee then you are entitled to get paid if there is a typhoon day. This does not apply if you are paid hourly. I’m sure this has been discussed in other posts. The only way you will not get paid for typhoon days is if your contract states otherwise. That is the reason they call it a salary I do believe. A fixed compensation for services.
[quote][quote=“Feiren”][quote=“jdsmith”]Stare, I just asked my wife about this. In our school, we do pay salaried positions for typhoon days off. Our FTs are not salaried so they don’t get paid.
[/quote]
Since your FTs are not salaried, do you expect them to do prep time for classes? I’m not trying to be a jerk, I’m just wondering what you think.[/quote][/quote]
If you are a salaried employee then you are entitled to get paid if there is a typhoon day. This does not apply if you are paid hourly. I’m sure this has been discussed in other posts. The only way you will not get paid for typhoon days is if your contract states otherwise. That is the reason they call it a salary I do believe. A fixed compensation for services.
stare[/quote]
Stare, that’s not how it works in Taiwan. Employees do not have to pay for typhoon holidays unless there is a provision expressly requiring them to do so in your contract. In other difference is that employers are legally required to pay salaried employees for overtime.
In practice (which is actually more important) many people do get paid for typhoon holidays at white-collar firms but they don’t get paid for overtime.
Yes, this has been discussed several times this year. It seem taht employers (especially Buxibans) are getting chintzy about this in the face of so many holidays.
I’m on salary. I get typhoon days paid, and sick days (with some proof of a visit to the doctor) paid at half pay.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that my school pays sick days, but I thought it was de rigeur for schools to pay their (NOT ‘THERE’ !!) salaried help their salaries during typhoon days.
Why else would someone take a salaried position? In my mind, it’s the small things like paid typhoon days and some percentage of medical paid for that makes being on salary worthwhile. I’m making less per month on salary most months versus /hour pay, but with these perks it works out about even over the length of a school year.
I am of the strong opinion (nothing to back it up, but I could find out) that my school also does not give refunds to the parents in the event of a typhoon.
It sounds like your school is treating you like a white collar employee. I think that is what they should do, and the practices you describe are sure signs of an ethical Taiwanese company that is not going to rip you off. I would tend to see deviations from this as a bad sign.
My point is that they don’t have to do this although it is standard practice.
I think no, they aren’t saying your money is going towards the gate, only that you aren’t getting typhoon day off pay this time…possibly BECAUSE of the damage to your school’s gate.