While about 87 percent of students would take a summer job, 45 percent of those who do take such jobs run into employers who do not pay salaries and give benefits based on the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), a survey by online job bank yes123 said yesterday.
The online survey was conducted between June 19 and Monday, with a total of 1,002 valid questionnaires collected.
The survey found that 45.9 percent of respondents said they were paid below the minimum wage, while about 32 percent said that employers did not help pay for labor and national health insurance.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
However, because of the short-term nature of the work, more than 41 percent said they chose to remain silent about the problems.
Of those who had taken summer jobs, 48 percent said they encountered trouble from employers with severe mood swings, while 41.2 percent said their employers made new employees handle all the difficult tasks and 29.4 percent said their employers did not have a clear division of labor.
Other “traps” or problems were reported by 29 percent of the respondents, including having large amounts of money deducted from their salaries by employers (63 percent), being asked to buy the company’s products (about 37 percent) or being taken advantage of verbally or through physical contact (about 10 percent).
Asked why they worked over the summer, 72.6 percent of respondents said they needed to work to pay for personal expenses, while about 60 percent said they wanted to save money.
About 58 percent said they wanted to expand their work experience.
As for the kinds of jobs taken, 61.6 percent said they worked in the service sector and 59.8 percent worked in the catering industry. While 73.8 percent of respondents said they cared about how much they earned, about 80 percent of them were making less than NT$20,000 a month.
The job bank said people taking summer jobs should pay attention to their personal safety. They should not go to interviews alone if they have doubts and refuse any request for advance payment to secure a job.
Workers should also file a complaint with the Council of Labor Affairs if they are being shortchanged on pay, the job bank said.
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