• Last updated:2021-11-03

Quarterly Focus

• Measures of Foreign Workers Protection in Taiwan, R.O.C

  Supply and demand in Taiwan's job market has become unbalanced in recent years, and a shortage of basic-level workers has developed because of the island's industrial restructuring, growing incomes, rising education level, and changes in work values. In October of 1989 the government moved to resolve the problem industrial and household labor shortage by importing foreign workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Policies & Regulations

• New Administrative Focus for the Centennial

  At the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, with the global economy showing gradual signs of recovery, Taiwan is welcoming the Centennial of the Republic of China and the CLA is looking forward to its upgrading to a ministry in 2012. On the eve of this momentous development, the CLA will work with an even more stable attitude and vigorous action to carry through with the "Ten Key Focal Points of Administration for the Centennial."

• Tocolysis Leave and Expanding Family Leave Coverage Provisions Added to Gender Equality in Employment Act

  In order to assure protection of the labor rights of pregnant employees and keep pregnant women from withdrawing from the labor market because of concerns about miscarriage due to a lack of leave time, on May 4, 2010 the CLA has promulgated a revision of the Regulations of Leave-Taking of Workers. The new Item 2, Article Four of the Regulations provides that, "When a worker diagnosed pregnancy with threatened abortion by physician,out-patient treatment period shall be included to hospitalized sick leave."effective May 6, 2010.

• Reinforcement of Health Services in the Workplace

  The implementation of Taiwan's national health system has popularized medical care resources and greatly improved employment medical services for laborers. This development, along with the C161 Occupational Health Services Convention that the International Labor Organization (ILO) has announced in 1985, proclaiming that the primary objective of occupational health services was prevention, this means that "prevention is better than cure"and the demand for enterprises to set up medical units focusing mainly on diagnosis and treatment has weakened. Further, with the changes in forms of work and industrial structure in recent years, along with an aging society and increased female participation in the work force, laborers today face not only the traditional threats in the workplace but also performance pressures, excessively long work days, shift work, psychological pressures, and other threats to health. In order to deal with excessive fatigue and the increase in musculoskeletal and other occupational diseases, there is an urgent need for greater protection of laborers' health.

• A New Milestone in Disabled Employment Rights--Protection for the Vision Impaired

  The new People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act, was promulgated and implemented by the President on Feb. 1, 2011, has set a new milestone for bringing the protection of employment rights for the disabled in Taiwan. The newly revised law (it was developed out of the former Disabled Citizens Protection Act) contained seven articles concerning the employment rights of the disabled. In response to the maximum three-year validity of Grand Justice Interpretation No. 649, which states that only the vision impaired may provide massage services, the new law contains a number of provisions to protect the job opportunities of the vision impaired. In regard to hiring quotas of physically handicapped, the new law also contains an additional provision to the effect that the calculation of jobs by units excepted from the hiring quota must include job analyses and rules for especially established enterprise. Another new provision specifies rules for life reconstruction services for the vision impaired.

News Outlook

• Hotline 1955 Boosts Interpretation and Legal News Services

  In order to help foreign workers in Taiwan to better understand the related laws and regulations governing their rights, and to assist them in resolving difficulties caused by language barriers, the Council of Labor Affairs expanded the scope of services provided by its toll-free "1955 24-hour Protection Line for Foreign laborers" as of this February. The hotline now offers 24-hour interpretation services in Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Tagalog, as well as legal tips services.

• Preventing Let Electrical Sparks Cause Huge Disasters Lights, motors and switch gears which those three kinds of electrical apparatus installed in hazardous area will be requested

  A single spark can start a fire; even a tiny electrical spark can raze an entire chemical plant. It is usually heard about explosions that lead to great disasters, resulting in tremendous property losses and heavy casualties.

• Source:Department of General Planning
• Publication Date:2011-02-28
• Count Views: