• Last updated:2021-10-18

    The Labor Safety and Health Act was amended and promulgated on July 3, 2013.The title of the Act has been changed to Occupational Safety and Health Act(hereinafter OSH Act) to expand the scope of protection to cover all workers. OSH Actwill enter into force on July 3, 2014, in two phases.

    The first phase ofenactment on July 3, 2014, includes measures that 41 existing subordinate regulationshave already amended and promulgated accordingly. These new measures include:

1.Applicable subjects are expanded to include all industries by which the scope ofprotection covers  employed laborers, self-employed workers, and other people engagedin work and directed or supervised by the responsible people in workplaces of allindustries;

2.Strengthen the protection of laborers’ physical and mental healthby which employers are required to adequately plan necessary safety and healthmeasures to prevent overwork, mental stress, and musculoskeletal related disorders;

3.When laborers encounter potential imminent danger, they may exercise theirrights to evacuation and withdraw to a safe location;

4.In view of today’sadvancement in industrial communication devices that has allowed for more means toreport accidents, the time limit for notifying major occupational accidents to aregional labor inspection institute has been shortened to 8 hours from 24 hours fromthe time the accident occurred. The shortening of this time requirement will allow theresponsible authority to obtain the cause of the accidents quickly and providelaborers who suffered from the accident proper treatment and rehabilitation.(Occupational accidents notification website: insp.osha.gov.tw/labcbs/dis0001.aspx)

5.Clear stipulations to regulate the joint liabilities of original enterprisesand the rights to conduct joint investigation of the occupational accident with laborrepresentatives.

    The Labor Safety and Health Act had been in force for afew decades since its original promulgation in 1974. Under the drastic changes inworking environment that we have experienced in recent years, many of the regulationsare no longer in line with social development. After many years of dialogue exchangeswith related sectors, the new Act was finally passed by the Legislative Yuan. Sincethe new OSH Act has 58 subordinate regulations, the Executive Yuan approved itsenactment in phases so that workers can benefit from the Act as early as possible. Thefirst phase of enactment, which is to enter into force on July 3, 2014, is limited torevised provisions; whereas the second phase of enactment, to be enforced on January1, 2015, is related to insertions of systems and measures.

    New measures tobe enacted in the second phase on January 1, 2015, include establishing certificationsystem for machinery, equipment, and tools, registration and classification managementsystem for chemicals, maternal health protection measures that take into accountmaternal protection and equal employment, and monitoring mechanism for conductingregular process safety assessments for high-risk businesses to manage and classifysuch risks at the source, for the improvement of a safety and health workforce.Ministry of Labor stressed that the rights of laborers and factories are protectedonly when industrial safety is ensured. Labor inspection is but one of the strategictools after the restructuring of the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA).Once the OSH Act is enacted, the Agency will adopt numerous strategic means topublicize, counsel, provide technical assistance to help businesses improve theirsafety and health facilities to achieve the goal of occupational accident prevention.

    To reduce the impact of the enactment of the Act on businesses, OSHA hasdrafted related administrative guidance for different business sizes and risks so thatlabor inspection institutions can have the appropriate accident prevention tools tohelp and monitor businesses to improve their safety and health setups. In addition,OSHA will be holding numerous awareness activities to help the public gain a betterunderstanding of the 41 subordinate regulations to be enacted in phase one.

• Source:
• Publication Date:2014-07-02
• Count Views: