• Last updated:2021-11-03

Quarterly Focus

• Economic Revitalization and Manpower Resources

  The global financial tsunami that was triggered by the American subprime mortgage turmoil beginning in 2007 engulfed countries all over the world. Since Taiwan is a small open economy with close economic and trade ties with the rest of the world, its export industries suffered a direct impact from the recession in Europe and America. The island's economy entered a rapid decline in the second half of 2008, depressing economic growth to a negative 7.11% in the fourth quarter of that year and a negative 1.91% for 2009 as a whole. Taiwan's unemployment problem deteriorated along with the economic recession. According to statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the island's unemployment rate climbed from 4.14% in August of 2008 to 6.13% the same month of the following year, boosting the number of unemployed from 452,000 to 672,000; after that the economy bottomed out and began to recover, bringing an end to the deterioration of the unemployment situation.

Policies & Regulations

• The CLA’s Administrative Goals for 2010

  The Council of Labor Affairs shoulders the mission of "upgrading the quality of manpower, creating a friendly working environment, promoting labor-ownership harmony, and realizing the dignity of work" as it strives to build a working environment of "fairness, humanity, safety, and dignity" for Taiwan's workers.

• An Emphasis on General Equality at Work A Great Advancement for the Interests of Female Workers

  With the large rise in the degree of women's education, transformation of the industrial structure, low birth rate, and ageing population in Taiwan, the issue of working women on the island is becoming more important every day. This calls for a rethinking of the positioning of women workers.

• A Cornerstone of Society, Rock of Support for Labor Taiwan’s Labor Insurance Pension System

  Taiwan set up a modern social security system under labor insurance way back in 1950. After that the legal system for labor insurance became increasingly comprehensive so that today there are 9.1 million insured people, giving labor insurance the widest coverage of all payment systems on the island and the type of social insurance with the greatest number of insured. It completely fulfills the function of protecting the livelihoods of workers and their families, and thus promoting social stability. Among the "Four Little Dragons of Asia," in fact, Taiwan is seen as having an outstanding performance in the promotion of social security.

• Employment Insurance Act Revision Affords Workers a More Secure, Stable, and Safe Working Environment

  Taiwan began to provide unemployment insurance with the implementation of the Unemployment Benefits Regulations in 1999, adding a new provision for unemployment payments under labor insurance; but those were merely passive payments to assure the basic livelihoods of workers who had lost their jobs, and the regulations made no provision for employment services or vocational training. To provide a more comprehensive employment security system, the Employment Insurance Act was passed by the Legislative Yuan on Apr. 25, 2002, promulgated on May 15 that same year, and implemented on Jan. 1, 2003.

News Outlook

• Taiwan Focuses on the Prevention of Unemployment Planning of Employment Stability Measures

  The implementation of the revised Employment Insurance Act on May 1, 2009 provided a legal foundation for the term "employment stability" in Taiwan. The financial tsunami had not yet occurred when the revision was first proposed, but scholars suggested that employment stability measures be added to the law's provisions as tools for the government to use in dealing with special situations such as the outbreak of SARS and water- rationing crises. When the financial tsunami struck in the last half of 2008, just as the related subsidiary laws were being worked out, it gave new urgency to the function of employment stability measures.

• Labor Standards Act Revision Boosts Career Choice

  Taiwan's Labor Standards Act divides conditions for retirement into two categories: voluntary and compulsory. With the former, the initiative lies with the worker; workers who comply with the voluntary retirement conditions stipulated in Article 53 of the Act may apply for retirement at any time. With the latter category the initiative lies with the employer, who must issue a retirement order before compulsory retirement can take effect.

• Revised Rules Allow Tocolysis Leave for Pregnant Women

  The Council of Labor Affairs has completed a revision of the "Regulations of Leave-Taking of Workers" designed to realize human-centered working conditions and assure the right of pregnant laborers to work. Under the newly added Paragraph 2 of Article 4 of the Regulations, "A worker who is diagnosed as a doctor as having cancer and is undergoing outpatient treatment, or a worker who needs to undergo tocolysis, may include his or her period of treatment or tocolysis in the calculation of hospitalization leave." The revision took effect on May 6, 2010.

• Measures Instituted to Protect Foreign Workers in Taiwan

  Taiwan has always protected the interests of foreign workers in the same way as those of local citizens, with no discrimination because of nationality, and has held to the principle of equality and justice in basic rights, and of national treatment in right to work. Resulting regulations and protective measures governing working conditions, as well as livelihood and working rights, include the following:

• Strenuous Efforts Undertaken to Reduce Occupational Accidents

  The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has mapped out an "Occupational Safety and Health Promotion Program" designed to reinforce safety in the working environment, speed up reduction of the occupational accident rate, and achieve the standards of such benchmark countries as the United States and Japan. The target of the three-year program, which is running from 2009 through 2011, is to reduce the labor-insurance occupational accident rate to under 0.4%.

• Source:Department of General Planning
• Publication Date:2010-02-28
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