Workplace reviews and discussion: 全盛科技有限公司

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This is a predatory company parasitizing the Veterans Affairs Council’s vocational training system. It is a Xiao family business, with the owner, the owner’s younger brother, son, daughter, and relatives controlling personnel and finances, so don’t expect any career development.

The owner teaches at a Veterans Affairs Council vocational training center.

Basically, the owner of a company with nearly 20 employees and annual revenue exceeding NT$10 million looks down on the hourly pay at the Veterans Affairs Council vocational training center.

What he wants is first access to those soldiers who have just left the military and are still naïve about the dark side of society.

That way, he can carry out his exploitation scheme. Soldiers are easy to deceive, after all—scam groups love this type of target.

As for why it is predatory:

1. Work environment: There is a morning meeting at 8:00 a.m. where the owner gives instructions and assigns work. Sometimes, if he is in a bad mood, he also berates people. Clocking in is done through a cloud-based system, which means that as soon as 5:00 p.m. arrives, you have to clock out at the job site or while on your way back from the site. This is how they avoid paying overtime.

2. Overtime pay: Basically, pretend this does not exist. For newcomers, when you return from a job site, the owner uses all kinds of emotional manipulation, sarcastic remarks and stares from senior workers, and peer pressure to force you to stay at the company, supposedly for “practice,” while doing odd jobs. For experienced workers, it is actually even worse, because after returning to the company they have to fill out all kinds of forms, submit official documents, and get yelled at by the owner, none of which is counted as overtime.

3. No meals provided: Normally, when a regular company sends a work crew out, the foreman provides meals and water. This company provides absolutely nothing. They even charge you for the boxed meals sold at the construction site’s canteen, and water goes without saying—if you fill too much water from the office, the owner will complain about it.

4. Workplace atmosphere: It is much more pleasant at the job site than at the company, because returning to the company means entering an oppressive atmosphere. This is also why the senior workers here have such terrible attitudes: the pressure imposed by the owner can, of course, only be vented on newcomers.

5. Most importantly, the salary: Newcomers earn less than NT$30,000, with a three-month probationary period. Raises depend on the owner’s mood and are NT$500 each time. Leadership positions are also laughable—just NT$500 more. There are technicians who have worked at the company for three or four years and still earn less than NT$40,000 a month, and they have to work overtime on holidays to exceed NT$40,000. The holiday overtime pay is ridiculous; calculated out, it is less than what you would make doing day labor—at most just over NT$1,000.

6. Tools: The company does not provide basic tools and expects you to buy your own. Although there are shared power tools, the owner keeps a close eye on how you use them, and you have to pay for them if they break. As a result, people there basically prepare their own tools. There is one advantage, though: when you resign, you can just take them all with you.

7. Why haven’t they been sued? This goes back to what I mentioned earlier: soldiers are easy to deceive and naïve, so there have not yet been any labor disputes. After brainwashing people in his classes, every few months he manages to trick another fool into joining his company. I am writing this long post simply in the hope of saving at least one person at a time. Low-voltage technicians are in very short supply on the market, so don’t let this company deceive you.