Workplace reviews and discussion: MStar_晨星半導體股份有限公司

HR’s power overrides all departments and only takes the employer’s side to exploit employees.

1. Policies are changed overnight. At the beginning of last year, it was announced that no additional flexible leave would be provided. However, after Da M later announced that flexible leave would be granted, the company changed its position and claimed that this was to align with “happy enterprises” and provide benefits better than those required by the Labor Standards Act. The same issue happened again this year: at first, it was announced that annual leave would be granted after the employee’s start date; because too many people objected, it was changed a few days later to granting part of it in advance.

2. Even though the annual holidays are fixed and predictable, at least two rounds of annual salary adjustments were delayed by one month, supposedly because there were too many holidays and insufficient staffing. (Compared with the Engineering Department, no matter how much leave there is, if the work cannot be finished, engineers just work overtime to complete it.)

3. The salary adjustment system is extremely strange. People with longer tenure may end up with a lower base salary than colleagues hired in the same year simply because they were promoted. Employees with the same job title may also receive different position allowances depending on the year in which they were promoted. The worst case is for people promoted to assistant manager: although their salary appears to increase, they can no longer claim overtime pay.

4. Problems with the company’s processes prevent overtime pay from being allocated in the relevant month, meaning employees cannot benefit from the Labor Standards Act’s tax exemption for up to 46 hours of overtime. When employees email HR to ask about it, they receive no response and can only absorb 12%–30% in income tax themselves.

5. Promotions are extremely opaque, and there is a headcount limit each year. Even if you perform very well, you will not be considered if you lack the required tenure. Moreover, HR has the final veto. Even if your department head thinks you are qualified, you still will not be promoted if HR says no—despite the fact that your department head is the person who actually sees your performance.