Job Discussion Forums

[Xenophobe]

Last Monday a friend of mine signed a contract with a fairly well known buxiban chain in Kaohsiung. On Thursday she received a phone call from the office telling her that they decided to give the position to one of their current employees who had lost some hours. Now before anyone goes off on a tangent about Taiwanese attitudes towards contracts, you should know that this is an American owned and operated buxiban.

Anyways, the explanation given to her was that this position had been offered to the employee before, but she declined it because she had a kindergarten job she didn't want to relinquish. So the position was offered to my friend and she signed a contract. In the intervening time, my friend was told, the person who refused the initial offer was fired from her kindergarten job and had classes at another school merged further reducing her hours. She asked for the position she had previously refused (and my friend had already signed the contract for and submitted all relevant paper work as well) and it was given to her because she needed the hours to maintain her ARC.

In the mean time, my friend who was supposed to have started on Monday now has to look for a new school to sponsor an ARC. While she shouldn't have any problem securing a job, she wonders what's the point in signing a contract with a school if they won't honor them?

[markholmes]

You keep saying she signed the contract, but you never mention if the school signed it. No contract is sealed until the ink is dry on both sides, so unless she has a copy signed by them then I guess legally they are in the clear.

Morally? Well, you could say they are at least looking after a current employee, which is more than some schools would do, although I do see that that's a bit rough on your friend.

[Xenophobe]

I had a look at the contract and it is signed by both her and the manager. However, looking over the contract I notice all the the obligations and clauses regarding notices of termination are what the employee owes the company. Nothing much about what notices the school will give an employee. It does state that if the contract is modified, it must be mutually agreed upon by both the school and the employee. It also states in English and Chinese that the contract is binding upon the signatures of the employee and the manager of the school, both of which appear above the date signed.

While I and others think that she could argue the unethical and legally questionable way she was dealt with, she's not interested in getting into an arguement. It's nice that the school took care of their employee, but it shouldn't have been done at the expense of another, no matter how new. The other employee turned down the position and it was offered to someone else, who signed a contract with the school, that should mean something. All it says to me is contracts mean SFA in Taiwan for the most part, even where they are signed with people who come from a culture where contracts are considered sacrosanct.

[Ki]

Your friend is lucky she received a phone call at all. a lot of schools prefer to avoid confrontation and not say anything, letting the poor teacher turn up to work on Monday without a class.

[DirtGuy]

Written and signed contracts are supposed to mean something? Who woulda guessed!!!

Get real, people. I deal with Chinese all the time in my business and contracts are seen more as a starting point for on-going negotiations rather than "written-in-stone" obligations. That is simply the reality of dealing with Chinese culture. It gets old really fast especially here in the States. As for over there, had my contract changed more than once when I taught but I didn't lose too much sleep over it. Don't trust 'em and expect that you will always come out on the short end of any deal.

And if you PC types have a problem with the above, deal with it.

DirtGuy

[clark.w.griswald]

Double post

[clark.w.griswald]

From a purely legal standpoint the school could claim that they ended the contract in a 'cooling off period' decision.

Additionally, many employment contracts in Taiwan state a probationary period during which either party can cancel the contract without penalty. This may also come into play in this case.

If it got to court I suspect that a judge would take into consideration that the work had not started and although an inconvenience it would be difficult to show losses attibutable to the school.

That said, it does really suck for your friend and I think that most people would agree that she was hard done by. I can understand the school choosing a known teacher over an unknown, but it is just a shame that the previous teacher didn't speak up sooner. I wonder if that teacher knows what happened.

[Xenophobe]

There was no mention in the contract about a time of sober second thought. All it says is that the contract was legally binding once the employee and the manager both signed it.

She never considered going to court over the matter as she found another school the following day and considered this matter more of a disappointment than an actual legal atter matter. I've brought it up for discussion because it is an example of poor business ethics/practice. When this happens too often word gets around and it often comes back to bite you on the ass.

[Serious_Fun]

...this person can consider herself fortunate to have secured legal employment so soon after this episode!

I'm sure that everyone has heard horror stories about broken contracts...and some of us have experienced this ourselves!

I don't have the words to describe the feeling of having a written and signed contract ignored by your overseas employer...although, years later, I laugh at the situation.

[dvasas]

Yeah contracts don't mean that much here, they are more of a requirement of the MOE and I have never had a school pull out the contract while employed, and their is usually a period at first where either party can end it with no notice as Clark said, there is a school around the corner so I would go forward and move on....

[wood]

[Xenophobe]

If you had read my subsequent posts, you would have seen that was exactly what she did. I also clearly stated that she had no intention of fighting over the issue, something that was suggested to her but she had no interest in. I posted this as a matter dealing more with poor business ethics, than anything else, as there are many cases of contracts being disregarded much later in the employment period. This just highlights the casual attitude that exists towards contracts here in Taiwan and yes I'm quite aware that employers have been screwed over by the multiply pierced back pack bums as well.

[wood]