Workplace reviews and discussion: 興南鑄造廠股份有限公司

Over the past two or three years, there have been year-end bonuses as well as Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival incentives, but the latter incentives may disappear afterward… because there are too many shareholders who want to take a larger share, and the company won’t be able to earn as much in the future anyway…

If you have been employed for less than a year—for example, starting on July 1—and it is calculated as half a year, the total is around 37K!

If you have been employed for a full year, it is around 90K!

The above figures are calculated using the maximum base amount.

If you unfortunately join the company, you can work during the first one or two months, but you will mostly just keep looking at the product specifications. You only start doing actual work after the first month. At the beginning, you may feel that there is very little to do, but the pay is genuinely low. The listed starting salary is between 35–40K, but the actual amount, including perfect-attendance pay, is under 34K. If you include the perfect-attendance and meal allowances, it is just over 34–35K; the basic salary is under 33K, only a little over 32K.

If you really do take the job, I recommend leaving after two months. There may be no salary adjustment for 10 years, or only when the minimum wage rises above what I currently earn; otherwise, an adjustment is impossible. There is no adjustment after the two-month probation period either. Mr. Wang from HR always says it might happen—that your salary might be adjusted after probation—but it may simply never happen. Thank you. In the end, there was still no adjustment after the New Year. After working for 20 years, you might only get a 2–3K increase, because salaries must be adjusted when they fall below the minimum wage stipulated by the Labor Standards Act.

Note that the year-end bonus, the three holiday bonuses, and the incentives have only existed for the past two or three years. The year-end bonus is also allocated according to seniority and calculated by year (this year’s amount was the highest). Bonuses are based on seniority and proportional calculations, but the system is completely unreasonable: a bunch of older employees who slack off receive more, while new employees are left to suffer.

***The key point is that, at the start of work this year, the company already said bonuses would be distributed according to its profitability. There is also a new competitor with a directly managed production line. This was a preemptive warning, meaning next year’s year-end bonus may be even smaller—or may not exist at all.

If you take bereavement leave, wedding leave, or annual leave, those days are counted as days you did not work, so your bonus will be even lower proportionally. Pay is also deducted on typhoon days. I was told I had passed probation after less than 60 days, which was probably because they could not find anyone. It was rather ridiculous. Later, I planned to leave after receiving the year-end bonus, but honestly, it is not worth it. The work is extremely exhausting; changing jobs is the better option.

Basically, no one trains you in the work. They just give you a rough explanation, and there is no SOP, so you have to figure things out yourself. The older employees are not very busy; when they have nothing to do, they watch videos on Facebook and will not help you with anything. You end up doing the work of two or three people by yourself. Many of the people assigned to train you are not very capable either (and do not need to do the work themselves). Otherwise, they explain only half of it. In short, run away quickly, or you will end up doing all the lousy tasks they do not want to handle.

You will be doing a pile of miscellaneous tasks, including the unpleasant ones. The monthly meal allowance is also calculated by the month: you only receive it if you did not eat that month; it is not calculated day by day.

This is a perpetually low-paying traditional-industry company with no salary adjustments. Well, you know how traditional industries are. That is why there are hardly any young people here—probably fewer than 10 young employees in the office. There are also many idle people who do no work (people with connections). So do not come here; run away. Do not come here under any circumstances. People without work experience will be wiped out here. Do not thank me—I am helping you. Just run.

Even if you resign verbally, they will not adjust your salary. Honestly, this is just another way for the company to exploit its employees. They only do something after seeing the resignation form… but the adjustment is merely the 2–3K increase that a normal company would give after probation; after that, there will be no further adjustments!

Unless your salary falls below the minimum wage stipulated by the Labor Standards Act. How pitiful! In short, run away quickly.