Seeing the world by working
James Chang, who earned a PhD in international affairs in Australia and in 2008 founded the Taiwan International Working Holiday Association, says that Australia has constructed a sound and comprehensive working holiday system, with foreign employees enjoying the same rights and privileges as their Aussie counterparts. Generally speaking, jobs in Australia are divided into one of three categories: full time, part time, and casual. The minimum wage for anyone over 20 is A$15.96 per hour (about NT$480). Even for temporary employees Australian employers still contribute an amount equal to 9% of the worker’s pay into an individual retirement account, and foreigners can apply to claim this money when they leave the country (though under Australian law anyone claiming their retirement money before age 65 must pay 30% tax on it).
A few months ago, media in Taiwan reported that a graduate of one of Taiwan’s most prestigious universities went to Australia to work in menial jobs for two years and ended up saving more than NT$1 million. He was unflatteringly compared by the media to people from Southeast Asian countries who come to Taiwan to do domestic or manual labor because they can make much more money here than they can even in higher status jobs in their own countries.
Seeing such distortions in the press, Chang can’t help but feel disappointed at the failure of the media to follow up with details. Did this young person pay taxes? “The spirit of a working holiday is not to make money, but to experience a different culture. If these reports mislead people into thinking that they can go to Australia and make easy money, someone trying to follow his example might end up violating local laws.”
Reminder 1: Read the contract!
Because Australia has opened its arms to young people from around the world, Taiwanese must compete for the available jobs. In short, jobs are not that easy to come by.
Australia’s unemployment rate is 5%, slightly higher than the rate of 4.2% in Taiwan. If you want to find a job in the service sector, like in a restaurant, where you are going to be able to interact with a lot of people, you have to be able to understand Australian-accented English. For some people, it is just more practical to take a higher-wage job as a laborer on a remote farm or in a chicken processing factory, but you’d better be sure ahead of time that this kind of rough, monotonous labor is right for you.
Also, no matter whether you find your job through a Taiwanese agent, an employment agency in the host country, or on your own, James Chang says that employment contracts can be complicated. Since they may specify conditions like vacation time and overtime pay, it is always better to have a contract than not, but remember that once you sign you are obligated to follow all the provisions.
He suggests that you invest some time in reading any contract carefully so as to avoid future disputes. Moreover, you should never turn your passport over to an agent or employer—even if the other party insists, you should only give them a photocopy.
The website of the Council of Labor Affairs clearly lists the labor laws of the eight countries that allow Taiwanese to take working holidays, as well as their visa application criteria. To take Japan, for example, the minimum hourly wage in Tokyo is ¥850 (about NT$250), and you have to show proof of financial assets totaling ¥200,000 (about NT$70,000) before you go; the requirement for Australia is NT$150,000.
Reminder 2: Get insurance!
A lot of things can happen when you are traveling. Upon arriving in Australia, which is 270 times larger than Taiwan, many Taiwanese can’t help but get all hepped up about driving around to see the scenery, and end up pushing the gas pedal to the floor whenever they drive.
In 2011, six Taiwanese young people died in traffic accidents in Australia. Therefore if you rent a car to drive around, be sure to follow local traffic laws and make sure that the car is well maintained.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps statistics on the number of emergencies handled by ROC offices overseas. Of the eight countries that have working holiday agreements with Taiwan, Japan has had the highest number of such incidents at 674, with Australia second at 161, followed by Korea and Germany at 133 each.
To protect yourself, and ensure that if an accident does happen, your family does not have to bear an onerous financial burden, it is best to buy the relevant insurance before you go abroad.
Dr. Gary Song-huann Lin, secretary-general of the MOFA and formerly the ROC representative in Australia, recalls an incident that happened back in 2011, before he returned to Taiwan. A young person from Taiwan working in Australia took a trip to the famous Snowy Mountains, and thinking that the snow must be deep and soft, jumped right into some snow-covered rocks and was paralyzed. He was eventually returned to Taiwan to be treated, but only after NT$4 million had been spent on an emergency flight arranged by the ROC representative office.
Lin says that Australia is like the US—healthcare is very expensive. For example, even a room in a six-bed ward (the cheapest) costs about NT$30,000 per day, and that doesn’t include what the doctors charge for consultations. Without insurance, the average person would be overwhelmed by such charges.
Reminder 3: Be a good guest!
“Just having a working holiday visa or visa-free status does not necessarily mean that you can enter a country,” says Gary Lin. If local immigration officials suspect that you might overstay your visa illegally, they have the right to turn you away.
Because as more and more young people go abroad on working holidays there are also more incidents, James Chang suggests that the government set up a “working holiday center” which brings together all the relevant information, such as each country’s labor laws. At the same time they could put handbooks about working holidays in Taiwan at all airports, train stations, and international hotels—just like the Tourism Bureau does with travel information—so that foreigners who come here for a working holiday can quickly and easily fit in to local society.
Working holiday agreements are reciprocal, and are intended to encourage exchanges between two countries. However, though many Taiwanese young people go abroad, few young foreigners come here.
MOFA statistics show that from 2004 through January of 2012, the ROC had issued less than 1000 working holiday visas. Most of these were to people from Japan (517), followed by Korea (175) and Australia (128). So far, only 43 have been issued to people from New Zealand, the earliest nation to sign a working holiday agreement with Taiwan.
Ireland has become a new option for working holidays as of 2013. It is a land with great scenic beauty, a moving history, and fabulous legends.
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