Job Discussion Forums

surebrec · Joined: 09 Oct 2005 Posts: 7

ay yo

So, I put in my notice monday...but then my boss talked me into staying. Now I get the impression the foreign teacher cooridinator is disappointed that i am not leaving. GOD this is a hassle.

Pop Fly · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 429

Wonder · Joined: 29 Jun 2003 Posts: 109

Pop Fly · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 429

Taylor · Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 384 Location: Texas/Taiwan

Dear Pop Fly, Wonder, and other Readers:

It appears that you guys are debating "apples and oranges."

The only contract with any validity is the one (in Chinese) that states you will be provided at least 14 hours teaching hours per week at your sponsoring school. No additional contracts have any validity whatsoever...regardless of whether the language is English, Chinese, or both.

Any so-called 'contract' that gets into details (such as: bonuses, vacation days, lateness, dress codes) is worth less than a blank sheet of paper---legally speaking.

You can consider such documents as a 'statement of understanding' or an 'agreement' (in non-legal terms) but I can assure you that no court in Taiwan cares about anything mentioned in these supplemental documents.

Taylor
Kaohsiung
8+ years

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

In order to obtain a work permit from the government to work in Taiwan the CLA requires a signed contract of employment in Chinese guaranteeing at least 14 hours of work a week, a health certificate, signed copies of every page of your passport (including blank pages), a copy of your original diploma certificate plus school issued documentation. I am not aware of any way around these and I am confident that any application made without all of these documents would be returned to the school unprocessed.

Surely it is common sense that to get a work permit in order to work legally in Taiwan that you must have an employer here attesting to the fact that you will be working for them. The only way that I can think of showing this is through a signed agreement between the employee and the employer which is the employment contract. Surely if such was not required then we could all get work permits by just telling the CLA that we will be working for a particular company and I am sure that you would agree that this is not likely.

Assuming that Wonder's ARC is a work based one and not a study based one, I believe that there are a few possibilities. Possibly Wonder signed a Chinese document that he/she thought or was led to believe was something other than a contract, but was in fact a contract of employment. If you have worked for that school previous years, they may just reuse past years signature pages on a new contract. Less likely but also possible is that the school just signed a contract themselves and presented it as being your contract of employment. That would obviously constitute fraud and I am not sure that a lot of schools would go to such lengths but assuming that they did then it would get you your work permit but of course the contract would not be legally enforceable.

Anyone in Wonder's position who may have been led by the school to believe that they can obtain a work permit without a contract should probably look into this a bit further. I believe that you will find that you are indeed under contract. If so, and you piss off your employer by leaving your employer without notice on the assumption that there is nothing they can do, you may find yourself inadvertantly blacklisted. I am unsure how the CLA would deal with this situation if you appealed the decision, but I have to assume that they would be unlikely to believe your story no matter how legitimate it may be. I mean isn't it common sense that to work here legally in Taiwan you need to get a work permit which is issued based upon the fact that you have work. This work is determined by the fact that you have a contract.

Finally, if you don't believe me then I suggest that you contact the CLA directly and ask to see a copy of your employment contract. They keep these on file and you may be surprised to find that there is indeed a contract of employment between you and the school.

Taylor · Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 384 Location: Texas/Taiwan

Dear Readers,

I would like to thank Clark for his post. However, the fact of the matter is that no additional "contracts" are even accepted for processing by the authorities.

The relevant authorities only accept the one contract (written in Chinese) that states you will be provided 14 hours per week.

While there may be a miniscule chance that some type of civil court would be willing to hear such a case, my point is that the Council of Labor Affairs (who authorizes work visas) would not give you the time of day--with regard to bonuses, vacation days, pay raises, dress code issues, etc.

The only contract accepted with the application for your work visa states that you will be provided 14 hours per week. Period.

Taylor
Kaohsiung

clark.w.griswald · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 2056

In processing your work permit the CLA is not going to generally be concerned with the content of your contract, and in fact I would be pretty certain that they would not even look at your contract in any great detail other than to check that it guarantees you 14 hours at least, and is signed and dated. I am sure that they don't care about any of the details as these are not relevant to processing the work permit document. In this regards I guess that Taylor and I are on the same page.

Where we seem to differ in opinion is that as I understand it Taylor is suggesting that anything written down outside of the contract has no legal basis and is unenforceable. If this is your opinion Taylor then I disagree.

I do agree that the written word and written contracts are generally not considered by most Taiwanese to be as binding as we consider these documents back home. This does not however take away from the legal effectiveness of these documents. While the average Joe (or Mr Chen) on the street is unlikely to care too much for the written word in a contract, I can assure you that courts do care here just as much as they do back home.

So my point is that any agreement you make, either written or verbal, is just as legally binding in Taiwan as it is back home. Just be sure that you have some evidence that such an agreement exists and you should have no trouble enforcing it. In cases of mediation with the CLA or even in court it is these documents that will ensure that you win your case.