I teach English.
My boss claims that I’m “part-time”, and won’t provide the same pay/benefits as aother teachers called “full-time” where I teach.
I teach 15 hours/week.
My boss sponsors my work permit and visa.
My problem:
I swear I once read somewhere that to get a work permit and visa, according to Taiwan Law, an English teacher MUST be “full-time”, and work a minimum number of hours per week, which I remember as being 12 or 14 hours/week.
Can anyone direct me to a link in Chinese (not English) from the Council of Labor Affairs or some Taiwan govt. entity so that I can show my boss that according to Taiwan I am indeed “full-time”?
If I’m wrong about this, I can admit that, too, I’d just like to know one way or the other.
The minimum number of hours for getting a teaching work permit/ARC is 15.
I’m not sure what “benefits” you are referring to.
Your employer is obliged to pay national health insurance contributions for you, as well as payments to some kind of employee protection fund IIRC.
But as far as I am aware, the statutory paid holiday requirements do not apply unless you recieve a fixed salary. If your pay is based on the hours you work, whether or not you are paid monthly, you are not salaried and hence not entitled to paid holiday, or any holidays for that matter apart from national ones. (This is how I understand the law only and in no way represents definitive legal advice!) Anyway, as the statutory paid holiday only starts accruing after a year without paid holiday you may not be missing out on much.
Was it holiday benefits you were talking about or other ones? If you are referring to discretionary benefits (i.e. ones that your employer chooses to provide; their provision is not compelled by law), then you may be out of luck. I don’t believe that you can force your employer to pay you the same as other employees.
The information apparently comes from the CLA who are now in charge of work permits in this area.
I don’t agree that you are classified as full time based solely upon the number of hours you work, particularly if you are on an hourly rate. You could be working 40 hours a week and still be classified as part time.
Full time workers are entitled to benefits such as a Chinese New Year bonus etc, but also have certain obligations such as paying into a trust fund for office outings, and working weekends once every three months or so to make up for lost time according to the number of hours worked each month by the calendar, compared to how many hours one should have worked.
In my opinion you are better off being part-time. Less hassle and less responsiblity to the company.
