Job Discussion Forums

StayingPower · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 252

I don't know, you all, but HESS is not going good for me and it may appear that my 30 day probation period will be a bad review.

I found lots of flaws about HESS. It's overblown, petty, and confounding in its curriculum. Duties placed on workers are far outweighing the time teaching; there's over-scrutinizing, over-observances of workers in class. The expectations overshadow the reasonableness of being an employee, and a teacher, and the contract is calibrated by a parient-orientated drive. There's just so much outside the contract it's almost not worth it.

But I did get my ARC and wonder. If I get the ax, how long is the ARC good for and is it transferrable? Or do I have to go through the whole rigmarole again?

BTW: The blanks are waiting to be filled in. But you can fill them in yourselves if you like.

markholmes · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Wengehua

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

The ARC is semi-transferrable.

What I mean by this is that you can indeed leave your current employer and get a new employer without getting a new ARC, but you would be best off to make these arrangements with the second employer before leaving the first if possible.

Whatever happens you need to make sure that any school you are working for is listed on your ARC in order to be legal. You cannot just get an ARC with one school and then leave them to use that ARC with others. You need the new schools to apply for a seperate work permit which can take a matter of weeks, but your ARC will be cancelled soon after you leave the first school. This is why you need to prepare things in advance.

Respect your contract however and don't do a runner. If you leave your current employer without giving the required notice (at least 30 days preferrably in writing) then you could find yourself blacklisted by the government which will prevent you from ever getting a work permit to teach in Taiwan again.

markholmes · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Wengehua

It was dicussed here a few weeks ago that in order to add that additional school you need the permission of the first school. Is that not correct? And if it is true wouldn't that make this law almost useless?

StayingPower · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 252

I wonder what this is now.

pinkflyd7 · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:48 am Post subject:

I worked for Hess for over 2 1/2 years. I would advise any newcomers to Taiwan NOT to work for them. Everything the above poster said is true, and more. And from the people that I know that are still working there, it's getting worse.

StayingPower · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 252

HESS is beyond what both you and I had said. It's almost at the point of being some kind of criminalistic climate for foreigners here, since it's really not honest in its dealings with its workers.

Some will come on here and assuage HESS's heavyhandedness by crying "It's the branch. . ." or "Just like other buxibans. .." This is false. There's something more afoot when it comes to HESS, something almost political.

I just found this to be a non-sensical organization, one that's an abysmal rift of reasoning a human being coming over here to teach will have to traverse.

Moreover, I'm really hoping to have some of those people cross my path, be it CT's, NST's, or Mr. Foo Man Chu, Shoo. They've instigated a sense of racial prejudice I haven't faced in a long time, so I have a little barbarism brewing in me.

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

atiff · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 66

From my experience as well, it can be a bit of a grey area. However, one thing that can make it black & white is if your first employer's contract has a non-competition clause in it that precludes you from working for another school while you work at your first employer.

Also, it is well worth being aware that, if you do go into a second-employer situation and you end your contract with your first employer (so that they cancel your documents), you lose the lot. It is possible to change a second employer over to a "first employer" before that happens, but take extra care (or you may get in trouble for overstaying your visa).

Just a little info....

timmyjames1976 · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 148

Not that I work for HESS anymore, or even in Taiwan at the moment, but I would be curious to know how legally binding a "non-competition clause" would be, especially in regards to Taiwanese law.

atiff · Joined: 14 Jun 2006 Posts: 66

I'm not a lawyer, but Hess' was written by a Taiwanese lawyer (in Chinese, and then translated into English). It's nothing out of the ordinary.

timmyjames1976 · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 148

StayingPower · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 252

I don't know about you, but this is what happened to me.

HESS told me they'd cancel my ARC. Said I had a week as of the day I was notified. Found out you have two.

Left, came back. Left again, came back, found a job. The new employer got all the documents ready for my work permit/ARC.

Went to immigration, found out my previous ARC had not been cancelled. All along, could've stayed. Got my new ARC, but post-dated to the time my former one ends.

Chicanery? Can I still work here, or is this a non-competition clause, the smirk I saw in my HNST's face?

ACCORDING TO LAW, THEY MUST CANCEL YOUR VISA WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME FRAME, can't forbid you from moving elsewhere, working for others.

I think, therefore, something is extremely wrong with the legal aspect of HESS's dealings, their power-trip-mentality.

And Atiff, I met you, wonder if you aren't but part of that thinking and plan there.

timmyjames1976 · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 148

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan