am writing this to relate my experience with a certain Buxiban in Taiwan.
The recruiter I formerly worked for was ESL4Asia which also operates
concurrently with Kao Chi International school in Taoyuan City, as both
share the same building and office.

The school has a track record of leaving many disgruntled teachers. I am the
latest one. The animus against recruiters in Taiwan is well earned by
ESL4Asia. The main recruiter, one Miss Sally Wu (Wu Ching Lin), has a
reputation for baiting western teachers into thinking they are getting a
good deal in working for her. A teacher is promised a furnished apartment as
well as amenities to their liking. Not to mention "rent free" living. The
problem with this is that when the teacher arrives in Taiwan, they are
treated to a room, not an apartment, that is nothing more than a converted
classroom. The only "furnishings" in it are a flimsy wooden bed frame, a
chair and a desk. It is at this point that the teacher voices complaint and
is told "this is how we think of an apartment in Taiwan" as an excuse. The
living area is more like a dorm hall than anything else. Teachers have very
little privacy in their converted classrooms, and must share all amenities
with the others (bathroom, washer, kitchen). So, this recruiter deceives on
the living conditions.

Next is the people she recruits for her business. She brings in foreigners
to teach illegally as well as legally, although even the legal teachers are
questionable for reasons I will detail later. The illegal teachers,
sometimes as young as 18 or 19 years old, get by on a student's visa or
multiple entry visa while teaching for her company. They get away with not
attending the classes and this allows the "students" to keep working for
Sally Wu.

Now, business operations. The focus of her business is to send teachers out
to different schools (i.e. subcontracts) that need a foreign teacher but
can't afford one of their own. Now, keeping in mind that the legal teachers
have her company/school as their sponsor, as far as I'm aware this is an
illegal practice since the teachers are supposed to work only within the
guidelines of their work permit/ARC. Her client schools include Joy, Kid
Castle, Rhy Shin Kindergarten, Hua Ren Kindergarten, and Gau Jie. The
illegal teachers are no different, although she also lies to the client
schools and makes them believe they are in fact qualified teachers. So not
only is she cheating the schools, but also the students and their parents.
And most times, both sides have disagreements as to the quality of teaching
for the above mentioned reasons. But Sally Wu has no problem sending out
unqualified teachers as long as she gets paid.

[Admin - It is illegal for a teacher to work at any place of employment or
for any other company than the one listed on the teachers ARC. The name on
the ARC should match the registered business name as stated on the
Certificate of Business that should be hanging on a wall in a prominent area
of the school. If the names are different then it is highly likely that one
is working illegally.]

Working issues. She has all of her "employees" sign a contract. Now, this
contract states many things that are not followed through in reality, and
one thing in particular that many in Taiwan informed me was illegal. Most of
the falsities in the contract are things I touched on above. However, her
business has gotten into the practice of withholding a monthly deposit or
"trust fund" as they call it. $3000 NT each month and the standard practice
beforehand was to penalize the teacher and hold this money from them if they
didn't finish the contract. That has changed a bit recently as a side effect
of my quarrel with the recruiter that had me leave Taiwan. Now, it is still
withheld each month but she claims she will give 6% interest in addition
when and if the teacher completes the contract. The sad part is, all of her
teachers were unaware of the labor laws for foreigners in Taiwan, so they
are blissfully ignorant of the fact that this is illegal. She has also
gotten into a practice of taking away tax money each month from teachers
whose ARC hasn't even yet been processed and received. I don't know if
that's a standard practice, but it seems to me that since the teacher isn't
yet a legal worker that she shouldn't be deducting tax money until they are.

[Admin - It has become illegal for employers to take any form of 'deposit'
in order to prevent a teacher from running away. It is not illegal however
for a school to have a clause in the employment contract that states a
penalty for premature breach of contract. Therefore, withholding money
during the term of a contract is illegal, deducting a penalty from the last
pay packet on the grounds of breach of contract isn't.]

Finally, the lies and deception. She likes to speak as a politician would.
Sally Wu can bend your ear to her side if you let her. She lies to save the
best interests of her company and teachers are not exempt. She sends the
teachers out to the schools on motor scooter, yet never mentions that they
need a liscense to drive one. She will deduct money from your paycheck for
some unknown reason and then when you ask her about it she will do her best
to BS you. She also arranges private tutoring lessons where she charges an
outrageous fee per hour, and ends up pocketing more money than the teacher
that is actually performing the labor. An example of this was that another
teacher there was giving lessons, and her student made a comment of why her
fee was so high. The teacher was surprised to find that the fee that Sally
Wu was charging was $1500 NT per hour, while the teacher herself only
received her basic $500 NT an hour for it. When confronted about this by
myself, Sally tried to worm her way out of it with an elaborate excuse about
needing the money to hire more staff.

These are the bulk of my grievances against Sally Wu and her business,
ESL4Asia. The majority of teachers during my long time there have left her
business disgruntled, angry, and some have taken heavy financial losses due
to her unwillingness to pay what was owed. One teacher had net losses
amounting to $50,000 NT. Another, $30,000 NT. The large amount of teacher
turnover during a period of 15 months is a testament to that. I left it up
to the teachers who are still there to take some action and fight her
practices, but I highly doubt any of them will because they fear for their
job security. It is unfortunate. But that is my account of working for Sally
Wu and ESL4Asia/Kao Chi.
Her web site www.esl4asia.com