Could This Happen To You? It Might
I get letters like this from time to time:
Don't know if you can help, but we thought it was worth a try.
My husband and I arrived in Taiwan on the 2nd of November. He
is a
teacher who majored in English at University and I'm a librarian, who
also
majored in English.
We've had the one problem on top of the other with the school we started
working at. A fellow South African left the school early to go
back
home and we are basically finishing his contract. I won't bore
you with all
the details. These are the issues:
Our visas expired on the 1st of December. We were told that organising
the ARC takes 2 weeks. We went for our medical during the first
week of our
stay and our documents were sent in. We are still waiting more
than a
month down the line. Thing is, they took our passports.
We were told (by the
school) that while the documents are being processed, we don't have
to
worry about our visa expiring. Is this true?
When we received our first paychecks, we were told that we will only
be
payed $450 for the time we don't have our ARCs. We were never
informed
about this. The sample contract that was sent to us stated $500
per
hour minus tax and nothing else. So I guess they are pocketing
the money.
Is this the practice in Taiwan? Or can I hold them to their innitial
promiss.
Does it mean we have been working for them illegaly becuase we don't
have our ARCs yet - and is that why they are not paying tax yet?
Thing is,
tax we can claim back when we leave, but this is just money taken from
us!
Who can we contact to find out about our ARCs? We were told that
they
are processing it in Taichung. Could we take matters in our own
hands, or
should our next school finish the job. We are serously considering
leaving the current school - we've had too many problems, including
the fact
that no form of contract has been presented to us - besides the one
that was
sent throught as a sample by the previous foreign teacher.
I hope you can give us some advice. We are very depressed and
disillusioned at the moment. We came here to work hard and earn
some money for
further studies - we are honoust considerate people. we just feel that
we are
being betrayed.
Thank you for your time