Some more advice on CAL/EVA
ELO... outstation bases... Its not avail to all. Depends if there is a slot available and only generally on the 744 fleet only. Typically you will get 8-10 consecutive days off a month, and then the rest of the month operate from Taiwan. If you take the 10 days/month I believe also you no longer get vacation days. (I didn't do ELO .. but I think your 2 vac days/mo are added to your 8 days off... not sure about it...if wrong please correct me) Housing allowance is removed, which is about 800 usd so don't forget to subtract that from your take home. You won't get the favourable resident tax treatment, even if on ELO you will pay 20% to Taiwan I believe. If you stay in Taiwan, it is only reduced to about 13-17%. Anyway, its a sliding scale so the less you make the less you pay. typical rent Taipei is about 1000-1500 usd excluding expenses. So, if you take the cash, and no word if its available anymore, you will be out of pocket most likely. If you take co accom, you will stay in a hotel at the Airport with nothing around and about 1 hour drive away from Taipei. AND dont forget to pay tax in your home country whatever that rate will be. So.... maybe at the end of the day you will walk home with 4k in your pocket if your lucky, and be jet lagged and worked to the bone. Those that say takehome 70-80k/yr? Hmm... i don't know aboutthat. I was on the highest foreigner widebody rate I thought and I didn't take home that much. Maybe with OT and before taxes, and def not on ELO.
If they offer you a new Type rating, you will be stuck with a bond that they will deduct from your paycheck. Another 500-1000/month gone. And don't think you will be able to skip out. Some have tried and they have taken those people to court in their own countries and made them pay the bond.
Do not give any credit to the pension quoted in the offering, it is totally bogus. You have to reach 55 years old to get it. If you don't you get nothing. What they do is after your initial contract they will renew annually or something like that and before its your turn to collect, they will just not renew you. This has happened to so many guys now its not funny. One was in court suing (worked for many years, and was very close to 55) recently and was denied at the supreme court level. In any western country you have Labor standards/fairness Laws, that protect everyone equally. Not so in Taiwan. The supreme court easily stated that because the Foreigner was not a National, he is not entitled to the labor fairness laws. So, Apparently discrimination is alive and well in Taiwan. You are not entitled to severance either.
They lie and tell you what you want to hear to make you think there is promise and long term potential so they can screw you and keep the salary low, and then in the end just before you are going to gain something from them, you get notice so they can save on the pension and rotate a new idiot in. They say there is chance to upgrade, but its very scetchy and there out of hundreds that I have seen come and go, only about half a dozen have actually done it. You will get fought all the way... the check pilots will fail you on something small just to make the Nationals look better and give the official reason why the 2500 hour wonder will get it before you. You will get an SB on something where the national won't and it will be the reason you dont get your chance. They think they can get away with it endlessly, but don't think about the reprocussions of the guys that they screw. They don't think that those guys can reach the others that they will hire. They think that there is an endless line of foreigners that are begging for the job, and that they can get away with it forever. This is why I am writing this. Pilots should show some solidarity and gumption, and do not work for these outfits, especially since they don't pay. Show CAL/EVA that they have to compete properly for our talents. Don't be fooled, there are not the labor protection laws in Taiwan that exist in other countries. You will not get severance or anything.
If your dead set on Asia, go to Korean, where at least they are up front and TRUTHFULL about their policies and pay you more.
Big WARNING. STAY AWAY.
Last edited by wayyyoutthere; 30th Mar 2010 at 12:52.