Workplace reviews and discussion: 齊裕營造股份有限公司

There are no entry barriers; they are willing to train you from scratch.

The construction company belongs to the Highwealth Group. An old site manager who had worked there for 2.3 years was an assistant general manager at the time. After I left, there was news that a crane fell onto the Taichung MRT and crushed a teacher to death. Not long afterward, he was promoted to general manager. What a joke.

At the time, he was in charge of three construction sites simultaneously. His temper ranged from merely average to extremely bad; if he took a dislike to you, he would yell at you.

The pay was low, and overtime was mandatory. The system allowed employees to apply for overtime pay, subject to the supervisor's approval. However, the site manager made it clear that once the project was completed, only repair work, inspection, handover, and similar procedures remained, so he would not approve overtime-pay applications. His reasoning was that no matter how tired we were, it was still not as exhausting as the construction-supervision phase. Therefore, neither veteran employees nor newcomers were allowed to claim overtime pay.

I joined in October and worked until after the Lunar New Year. After receiving the New Year bonus, I immediately submitted my resignation, only to be subjected to emotional blackmail and verbal abuse by the site manager in person.

When I returned to the company to complete the paperwork with HR, they also used misleading tactics, claiming that the company had never refused to let me claim overtime pay and that I simply had not applied for it.

At the mediation session, the lawyer even tried to argue that I had not applied for overtime pay through the system. I told him frankly: If your direct supervisor tells you face-to-face that overtime pay will not be approved, would you still submit an application through the system for him to sign? Wouldn't that mean you simply did not want to work there anymore? He had no response because he knew he was in the wrong. Later, accounting deducted money here and there, and in the end I recovered only three-quarters of the overtime pay that was rightfully mine.

Everyone inside and outside the company knows that it is extremely terrible. Even the sales agents from the same company mockingly call it a beginner's village: if you endure being exploited there for two or three years, you can thrive anywhere outside.

I originally saw that a friend was doing well in northern Taiwan, so I went to give it a try with the intention of changing careers. I never expected to draw the absolute worst lot.

All I can say is: if another construction company is willing to hire you, for heaven's sake, do not choose a construction company under the Highwealth Group.