Think again and you win.

1. Underreporting salaries to reduce employees’ labor and health insurance premiums

The statutory minimum wage is deposited into employees’ salary accounts,

with the remaining wages then paid in cash.

They openly use the minimum wage as the basis for calculating employees’ labor and health insurance premiums.

2. Underreporting salaries to reduce the required 6% labor pension contribution

The statutory minimum wage is deposited into employees’ salary accounts,

with the remaining wages then paid in cash.

They brazenly use the minimum wage as the basis for calculating employees’ 6% pension contributions.

3. Absolutely no overtime pay

They make it clear from the outset that overtime will not be paid.

They brazenly violate the Labor Standards Act.

If you don’t like it, don’t work here.

4. Excessive working hours

The daily 30-minute meal break is merely nominal.

There is often no time to eat, while employees must continue handling work-related matters.

Employees are often required to visit schools (distribute promotional flyers) or attend meetings outside working hours or before work.

Both meetings and school visits take considerable time.

There are also other temporary tasks to handle.

Employees must use their own time for all of these activities—

that is, their non-working hours.

None of this time is recorded,

so naturally no overtime pay needs to be provided.

5. Wages withheld in advance for the first three months

For new employees who have just joined,

NT$5,000 is withheld from their wages for each of the first three months (NT$15,000 in total).

It is paid only when the contract is signed after the three-month period.

If you leave within the first three months,

the withheld money will not be returned.

6. Payslips

When wages are paid each month,

the company does not provide employees with payslips.

They only ask you to sign and then take the document away.

Even if you ask your supervisor to provide the payslip,

they will say, “The director said this cannot be given to you.”

It cannot be given, so it cannot be given.

They simply refuse to provide it.

7. Employment contracts

When an employment contract is signed, it should originally be prepared in two copies.

But this company has its own way of doing things.

After the employee signs, they take it away

without leaving a copy for the employee to keep.

They refuse to give you one, just the same.

8. Non-compete clause

After leaving the company, employees are still required to sign a non-compete agreement.

As mentioned above, they do not give employees a copy to keep after it is signed.

They take it back as soon as it has been signed.

Nor is any legally mandated reasonable compensation provided.

If you refuse to sign,

your salary for the month before leaving will be... “temporarily withheld.”

What a clever move.

Article 9-1 of the Labor Standards Act

An employer may not enter into a post-employment non-compete agreement with a worker unless all of the following requirements are met:

1. The employer has legitimate business interests that require protection.

2. The worker’s position or duties enable them to access or use the employer’s trade secrets.

3. The duration, geographic area, scope of occupational activities, and prospective employers covered by the non-compete do not exceed a reasonable scope.

4. The employer provides reasonable compensation for the losses suffered by the worker as a result of not engaging in competing activities.

The reasonable compensation referred to in Subparagraph 4 of the preceding paragraph does not include payments received by the worker during the period of employment.

An agreement that violates any of the subparagraphs in Paragraph 1 is void.

A post-employment non-compete period may not exceed two years. Any period exceeding two years shall be reduced to two years.

To be continued