• Last updated:2021-10-18

   The Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, will bereorganized in 2013 and become the Ministry of Labor.Describing the Ministry''s vision Minister Pan Shi-wei stated that, in the past, policies were centered on labor protection, however,in the future, all the stakeholders in the labor process will be the focus of the Ministry. The Ministry will promote its vision while upholding three principles: independence, equality,and development, moreover create more employment opportunities, pursue social justice and raise the level of national competitiveness.

Establish autonomous labor-management relations
   Minister Pan, who took up office in October this year,stated that the Ministry will first establish autonomous labormanagement relations. The economic system is export-oriented in Taiwan, it rely deeply on the global economy, however, globalization is bringing rapid change and substantial impact on Taiwan''s economy. If the relation between labor, employers and related stakeholders maintain more autonomously they will be more likely to respond to the fast pace of economic change. The government used to play the role of an intermediary between labor and management, coordinated to aceieve balance of two sides. However, against the backdrop of globalization, a single country or union in a country is no longer capable of handling multinational company labor-management relations. Consequently, unions must gradually transform into those being able to survive in the free market mechanism framework and handle increasingly complex labor-management relations and collective bargaining issues with global thinking.
   Minister Pan said that recently the media has reported on the financial situation of labor insurance scheme, an issue that involves generational justice and the sustainability of social insurance in Taiwan. In addition, the amount of retirement pension has a considerate impact on workers'' life in old age, making it important to increase labor pensions in amount and ensure that the pension is sufficient for the workers in the old age. By the custody and trading of labor retirement funds. By now, the labor pension funds are managed by the Labor Pension Fund Supervisory Committee. In the future this will be upgraded a n d b e c ome the Mini s t r y of Labor Retirement a n d W e l f a r e Department and be responsible for policy planning and supervisory; while the Bureau of Labor Funds will be responsible for pension fund ma n a g eme n t and operation. In addition, allowing workers to self-choose the investment mechanism through which they invest their self-held pension fund and introducing diverse investment channels are being considered to give workers more autonomy with regards to pension investment planning, allow risk to be spread and increase retirement income. In coordination with multi- evel guarantees for worker old age income source, the incentives for voluntary payment will be strengthened and this will also be an important mechanism for supplementing worker individual postretirement economic security.

Guarantee labor work health and safety
   Minister Pan emphasized that striving to ensure labor safety and health is a symbol of the importance the country attaches to human rights. For many years, the CLA has actively promoted the Occupational Safety and Health Promotion Program. In the future, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be established underneath the Ministry of Labor, to deal with diverse occupational disease prevention, strengthen labor health and safety guarantees and the system for the rehabilitation of workers involved in occupational accidents, in doing so making the occupational accident labor protection system complete, protecting the basic human rights of workers, providing the country with safety and healthy workforce and reducing insurance payout expenditure and national economic losses. At the same time, in addition to attaching importance to the protection of occupational safety and accident prevention, the CLA is also actively promoting workplace equality, eliminating employment discrimination and is building a friendly work environment. Concrete measures include implementing the Labor Union Act, Regulations for Arbitration on Labor-Management Disputes and Collective Agreement Act and Gender Equality in Employment Act, as well as promoting social dialogue.
   Taiwan''s demographic trends indicate that the population will get smaller and smaller, which results in needs for industry to consider to develop in an environment with less human resources. Minister Pan pointed out that we have well-educated and trained human resources in Taiwan, making it harder for workers to be satisfied with doing basic machine operating work. In result, industry should think on a fundamental level if the foreign worker requirement issue is to be resolved and enterprise growth spurred; if more foreign workers are permitted to work in Taiwan, enterprises will remain on making cheaper products and stay at the end of supply chain and fail to rise up. Minister Pan said, apart from raising the level of the workforce, Taiwan''''''''s worker salary levels may have risen a bit but are still low; however, industry can''''''''t just rely on cheap labor, it must optimize and upgrade, while rise the salary as the workers capability upgraded correspondingly. This is the social responsibility of enterprises.

Increase the international market competitiveness of Taiwan''s manpower
   To strengthen and integrate the development and utilization of manpower, the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training of CLA will reform into the Workforce Development Agency; through workforce skill increase, development and use, the sustainable development of the workforce will be promoted. Employment services, vocational training skills assessment and the entrepreneurship assistance system will also be integrated, creating a comprehensive service channel and providing all workers with career planning services throughout their working lives. Minister Pan pointed out the CLA provides employment services through many channels, including employment expos, large enterprise and SME recruitment events and building a virtual-real employment service channel. At the same time, employment promotion allowance and related employment grants are used to help people in low and medium income households find suitable employment, and, by doing so, leave behind poverty and improve their family''s economic situation. In addition to employment matching, in the area of vocational training, the CLA also actively implement various schemes such as the Pre-job Training for the Unemployed, the Youth Talent Training Scheme and the Industrial Talent Investment Scheme to help workers change jobs or find a job successfully. In addition, the CLA also keeps abreast of the personnel recruitment needs of enterprises in its area of jurisdiction and continues to implement the Enterprise Talent Recruitment Match Plan.
   Minister Pan reiterated, in the future the Ministry won''t only be concerned with protecting labor, it will have to think about to be competitive in international arena. Without competitiveness there will be no employment opportunities and no salary growth; this is a chain effect and the Ministry will do its utmost to allow the more space to provide a better working environment for workers.

• Source:Department of General Planning
• Publication Date:2013-02-19
• Count Views: