I have been working as an editor for a company in Taipei for the last two and a half years. They renewed my work permit for the fourth time just over a month ago. Yesterday my manager, who has a looooooong history of conflicts with employees, both foreign and Taiwanese, called me in to the office when no one else was there, fired me, wouldn’t give me a reason, and said some very abusive things. I’ve since been in touch with many of my co-workers and they are all as shocked as I am.
I told him I thought that he had to give me something in writing. I wanted some official statement or document or something saying why I’d been fired. He refused to give it to me.
I don’t know why I was fired. He says he is going to cancel my work permit. This means I have seven days to get out of the country, right? Also, every time my work permit was renewed, I signed a piece of paper where the company agreed that they would hire me for a year. Does this count as a contract or have I, unknowingly, been working for two years without one?
I have been living here for almost four years and have never done a visa run; never had any problems with anyone in any way. What are my options? Am I really at the mercy of someone who doesn’t seem to be making rational decisions?
[quote=“Skipper”]I have been working as an editor for a company in Taipei for the last two and a half years. They renewed my work permit for the fourth time just over a month ago. Yesterday my manager, who has a looooooong history of conflicts with employees, both foreign and Taiwanese, called me in to the office when no one else was there, fired me, wouldn’t give me a reason, and said some very abusive things. I’ve since been in touch with many of my co-workers and they are all as shocked as I am.
I told him I thought that he had to give me something in writing. I wanted some official statement or document or something saying why I’d been fired. He refused to give it to me.
I don’t know why I was fired. He says he is going to cancel my work permit. This means I have seven days to get out of the country, right? Also, every time my work permit was renewed, I signed a piece of paper where the company agreed that they would hire me for a year. Does this count as a contract or have I, unknowingly, been working for two years without one?
I have been living here for almost four years and have never done a visa run; never had any problems with anyone in any way. What are my options? Am I really at the mercy of someone who doesn’t seem to be making rational decisions?[/quote]
First off, my heart goes out to you. What a terrible and very unprofessional action carried out by your manager.
Some of the legal experts will have to weigh in on this one. Was your contract in Chinese or in English? I am not sure about this, but unless it has been indicated that the English copy of the contract takes precedent, then you will have to follow what the Chinese contract says. (I could be wrong about this.)
Also, I think that if you are fired then you are entitled to some kind of compensation (under Taiwan labor law) or at least proof of termination.
I believe you are correct in getting something in writing. Even if you leave a job on good terms, it seems that in Taiwan you often need some “proof” in writing that you have indeed left this job. For example, when I left one job, I needed proof of this in order to apply for the national health insurance.
Once again, my heart goes out to you. This is a hurdle, but you will clear it and you will move on to bigger and better things.
Use the search function: I’d try labor relations, employee rights etc. There has to be info there. Hope this works out for you.
You can find Robin Winkler’s web site easily enough: either Taipei and employment law or AIT lawyers and scroll to Winkler. He has a 60-70 page paper on the legal framework pertaining to “foreign” workers.
You should be able to learn about fundamental rights granted workers–I think by Employment Security Act. My recollection is that the agency with competence–Council of Labor Affairs–has fairly stipulated at least what terms must be in a contract.–.e.g., wage, duration, etc.
CLA’s competence and rules apply to stipulated employee classifications. For example, I believe private schools are exempt. OTOH, CLA gave notice or promulgated new rules extending it’s competency. If you are in a covered class of employee, CLA may be the place to start.
I’ve not seen the phrase “employment at will” in ROC, which you know is nearly always the case in the US. But I’ve not looked hard, mostly because employment is ultimately always at will: people are free to make contracts and break contracts.
There are many web resources including a database of ROC law. If you can’t find them when you are ready to use them send me a note and I should have links.
Richard Moss
Taichung
Taiwan ROC
I’m sorry to hear about this. Under the Labor Standards Law, your employer should have notified you 20 days in advance. If you have been fired for no reason, then your employer owes you two months salary in compensation. If your employer does not want to give you 20 days notice, he can convert that into 20 days of pay above the two months you are owed for your two full years of service.
What you need to do now is call your employer and explain to him that you understand your rights under the Labor Standards Law and that you are going to refer the case to your local labor board within 24 hours if he does not pay you ALL of what he owes you including the 20 days of pay he owes you for not notifying you. Here is a Chinese version of the Labor Standards Law you can show him. Articles 16 and 17 are the relevant ones.
law.moj.gov.tw/Scripts/Query4B.a … e=N0030001
Since you probably want to arrange another job, tell him that you would like to stay on for the 20 days while you look for a job. This way you have more time before your work permit is cancelled and he doesn’t have to pay you the extra 20 days.
I have posted contact information for labor dispute boards here:
forumosa.com/kwiki/index.cgi?EmployerDispute
Feel free to pm me if you need help calling or finding your labor dispute board. Labor dispute boards favor the employee heavily. Usually just mentioning that you know about it will put the fear of God in your employer.
In your case, you need to act quickly because time is running out.
Thanks for the helpful advice. Earlier today I tried the labor dispute board phone number that you posted on Forumosa, but there was no one there who could speak English, so I gave up. My Chinese is OK, but definitely nowhere near good enough to negotiate this kind of stuff. I found another number though; some kind of hotline for foreign workers (0800211459) and, after being put through to a few different people, finally spoke with woman who spoke very good English. She said it’s possible to put a hold on the cancellation of my work permit. She gave me the number of the Taipei City Labor Bureau and told me to contact them to have it done. I called and the woman in the office who speaks English was out, so I was told to call back in an hour or so, which I will do.
I will also contact my employer and let him know that he is obligated to give me twenty days notice. Fingers crossed.
Thanks again.
I agree with the others who have posted in as much as you can most likely take action against your employer for the fact that he fired you. Under the regulations you are entitled to some compensation, and although I am unsure of the applicability of severance pay to foreign teachers, I would pretty sure that it would apply to you as it would seem likely that you were employed as a full time worker.
You have links to the Chinese version of the Labor Law and here is a link to an English version:
buxiban.com/Legislationview. … itmcde=269
I would take Feiren up on his/her offer of assistance and pursue this matter as I agree that you are likely to receive a favorable outcome.
No matter what happens, it is highly likely that you will need to do a visa run which is very unfortunate for you. It might be wise to start looking for a new job so that you will be able to get back into the workforce as soon as possible.
Good luck!
It’s not Interface Global is it? This is exactly what they did to me (). When it happened to me, I went to the Labour Rights Association, who advised me to lodge a case straight away with the Taibei City Department of Labour. The LRA advised me that, with a labour dispute case underway, I would not be deported. The Labour Department is in the Taibei City Government building, on the 7th floor, if I remember rightly. You can go there in person to lodge a complaint. If there is a hearing about your case, someone from the Labour Rights Association can go with you as your adovacate. They will not accept payment for this voluntary service. Your advocate will have his/her expenses paid by the Taibei City Government. I am willing to back you up with action on the basis of my own experience, since our situations are almost identical.
Department of Labor, Taipei City Government,
No. 1 Shifu Rd., Taipei, Taiwan 110, R.O.C.
Tel: 886-2-2720-6607
URL: english.taipei.gov.tw/labor/index.jsp
Click here to download a labour dispute application form (PDF) - in English!
Good advice from everyone.
Francoise, you might do as Juba did–go to these places directly and in person. It is amazing how much faster and smoother things seem to go if you are there in the office (as opposed to calling on the phone–and being put on hold and shunted off from person to person).
Best of luck with this. You will take care of all this and come out the better for the experience. Please keep us posted, so that we will know what to do in cases like this in the future.
Thanks for all your help guys. Just for your information, the company I’ve been working for is not interface global, though my situation does sound remarkably similar to juba’s. I feel much more empowered now. Gonna go out there and find myself a new job. I’ll keep you all updated on the labor dispute thing. Maybe someone else will find it useful.
To put a positive spin on the whole bad employer thing…at least the lack of organization gave me the opportunity to try my hand at almost everything that was done in our office. I learned a lot more and gained a wider variety of skills than I probably would have otherwise. See…there’s always a good side, right?
Please tell us who they are, so others don’t make the mistake of working for them.
Can I legally name them?
Fine by me. Seems you’d be doing the community a favour…
So long as everything you have stated about them is true, yes.
OK then. The company I’ve been working for for the last two and half years is called … They publish four different educational magazines which are sold in high shools and bookstores around Taiwan. They also have a textbook division that makes dictionaries and things like that.
I am definitely not the first employee to have problems with management there. Consider yourselves warned.
The number Juba gave for the Department of Labor, Taipei City Government, is unassigned. Does anyone know the new number or where I could find the information?
There are several (six) criteria under which an employer can fire you without severance pay. Things such as giving away company secrets, insulting or physically attacking your boss, etc.
I’m not sure what they all are, but you need to find out and make sure that you’re not guilty of any of them, because that’s how the company could squirm out of it.
Perhaps one of the lawyers here can provide you with the list.
If they fired you without such reason, they would be liable to pay you for the entirety of your contract. 
How much time did you have left?
Just remembered: You need proof that you still want to work there. Strange but true. You need to take a police officer, lawyer or the like, or a friend with a video camera, and walk in to your office, ready to work.
They will eject you, which proves that they are preventing you from finishing your contract.
doesn’t cancelling my work permit already prove that they are preventing me from finishing my contract?
Not sure, but that’s what I was advised to do.