The Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (hereinafter referred to as the "Act") formally came into effect on February 8, 2018. The Ministry of Labor (MOL) has already begun processing applications from employers and foreign nationals for work permits to work as teachers at extracurricular learning institutions, as foreign special professionals, or as freelance artists; applications can also be made for work permits for the adult children of foreign professionals. Work permit applications can be submitted by registered mail or in person.

The MOL stressed that work permit applications for foreign freelance artists and for the adult children of foreign professionals can be submitted to the MOL directly by the individuals concerned; the documents do not need to be submitted by the employer. With regard to foreign special professionals recruited to perform specialist work, the MOL has published the revised "Other Documents Required for Employers to Hire Class A Foreign Nationals" in accordance with the lists of required specialist qualifications announced by the central government regulatory authorities, and has also created a special application form; with respect to freelance artists, the MOL has published the Regulations on the Work Permit and Administration of the Foreign Professionals Engaging in Arts and Performing Arts, and has formulated the relevant lists of required documents and application forms.

Adult children of foreign professionals with permanent residency must obtain confirmation from the National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior that they have been resident or living in Taiwan for the required period of time. The MOL reminds adult children of foreign professionals wishing to apply for a work permit that, in accordance with the provisions of the "Key Points Regarding MOL Review of Applications Submitted in Accordance with Article 17 of the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals," applicants should obtain written confirmation from the National Immigration Agency that they meet one of the specified conditions to qualify as being resident in Taiwan; this should be obtained before submitting the work permit application to the MOL, in order to avoid delays in the application process.

To make it easier for applicants to find the information they need, relevant information has been posted under "Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals" (in Chinese) in the EZ Work Taiwan section of the Workforce Development Agency website. If you have any queries, please call (02) 8995-6000. If you need more information about the qualifications for foreign special professional status, or about any other related matters, please visit the dedicated Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals page on the National Development Council website , or contact the relevant ministry or agency.

Keywords: Act for Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals; foreign special professional; foreign freelance artist

To facilitate simple government convenience measures, the "Enforcement Rules of the Employment Insurance Act" were revised and issued on March 21, 2018. The insured person who has participated in the vocational training expired has failed to find work and apply for unemployment benefits, or if, after receiving unemployment benefits, the public employment agency arrange vocational training for the insured person who applies for the vocational training living allowance, the insured may free to providing a copy of the bank Passbook if the financial account in which the remittance using the same account as the prior benefits or allowance.

After the law is revised, it is estimated that more than 10,000 labors will be benefited when they apply for the relevant insurance benefits each year.

Keywords: Simple Government convenience measures; unemployment benefit; free bank Passbook copy

On April 30th, to mark Labor Day (on May 1st), the Ministry of Labor (MOL) held the "Let's help each other, and work hard together" 2018 Labor Day All-Taiwan Model Worker Awards at the Taipei New Horizon Event Space to recognize the contribution that ordinary workers have made to Taiwan's national development, to society and to the economy through their hard work. Executive Yuan Premier Lai Ching-Te attended the awards ceremony in person, where he joined with the several hundred special guests to applaud the 51 Model Workers from all over Taiwan.

In his address, Premier Lai began by congratulating the 51 All-Taiwan Model Workers on their achievement; he pointed out that the awarding of this honor was due to their outstanding performance and diligence, and that they had truly earned the title of Model Workers. He also took the opportunity to thank all of Taiwan's workers for their hard work, on behalf of the government, praising them for their efforts and their contributions, which have contributed to Taiwan's economic development and made it possible for Taiwanese society to enjoy safety and happiness.

The MOL noted that this year's Model Worker candidates were outstanding performers in a wide range of different industries, and that the 51 All-Taiwan Model Workers had been selected through a rigorous evaluation process, standing out amongst a large number of first-rate candidates. Every All-Taiwan Model Worker possesses impressive skills and importance in their own individual field. Although they perform different jobs and have different backgrounds, they share a commitment to their work, a professional, proactive outlook and a responsible attitude; all of them have done their utmost to make their own contribution towards the development of particular industries and sectors in Taiwan.

In her address, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-Chun noted that the All-Taiwan Model Workers awards ceremony was held not only to express sincere congratulations to this year's award-winning Model Workers, but also to express the highest respect for the workers who are working hard throughout Taiwan, to thank them for the contribution that they have made to this country. Minister Hsu also stressed that, in the future, she and the MOL team would be communicating with workers in a spirit of good faith, listening carefully to the voices of workers in all industries, and striving to develop a better understanding of workers' needs, so that government policies can be tailored more closely to what workers really need, with the aim of creating a "win-win" situation for both business owners and workers.

Keywords: Labor Day (May 1st); 2018 Labor Day All-Taiwan Model Worker Awards Ceremony; All-Taiwan Model Workers

On April 27, 2018, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) held an Industrial Safety Leaders Summit Meeting, which the CEOs of 60 major corporations were invited to attend. Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-Chun chaired the Meeting in person. During the Meeting, representatives of CPC Corporation explained the improvements the company is making to process safety management, and Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPC) shared its experience in promoting effective process safety management. In addition, workers who had been involved in industrial accidents and managers responsible for handling industrial accidents were also invited to attend the Meeting, where they gave the attending CEOs the victim's perspective and offered suggestions for improvement from the point of view of managers responsible for providing support for industrial accident victims.

Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-Chun noted that outstanding leadership on the part of senior managers still needs to be supported by a joint effort on the part of all employees. While striving for high sales and high profits, business enterprises should also be working constantly to improve health and safety in the workplace, in line with society's expectations regarding workers' safety and public safety. Within any given enterprise, the drive to ensure industrial safety should be implemented by using a top-down approach; if the firm's leaders show that they take industrial safety seriously, then this will influence everyone else in the company, and help build a new corporate culture. Not only will this help to ensure workers' safety, it should also have a positive impact on the firm's corporate image.

Minister Hsu went on to point out that, following the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2014, OHSA has worked actively to implement various strategies for reducing the incidence of industrial accidents. Thanks to the collaboration and hard work of organizations in many different sectors, there has been a steady fall in the number of occupational accidents per thousand persons; in 2017 the rate of Labor Insurance payments to victims of industrial accidents was 2.773 per thousand persons, the lowest level ever recorded. Nevertheless, human life is priceless, and in order to further reduce the incidence of industrial accidents, this year the MOL has formulated a three-year industrial accident reduction plan. It is anticipated that this plan will bring about a further reduction in the frequency of industrial accidents of 30%. It will involve the utilization of a variety of different methods, including stepped up inspections, awareness-raising and guidance, using concrete action to demonstrate the government's commitment to industrial safety. It was anticipated that this Industrial Safety Leaders Summit Meeting would help to get business leaders working together to promote industrial health and safety work, thereby helping to improve the overall quality of health and safety in Taiwan's business enterprises. The government's vision is to realize the goal of reducing industrial accidents to zero within the not-too-distant future. It is hoped that the CEOs of major corporations that attended the Meeting will fulfill their social responsibilities, playing the role of "industrial safety pathfinders," and making a continued effort to improve health and safety in the workplace, so as to safeguard workers' rights and public safety.

Keywords: CEO; Industrial Safety Leaders Summit Meeting; workplace health and safety

As recent years, as the employment services network in Taiwan has evolved, two main categories of employment services channel have emerged: physical and virtual. Currently, there are physical employment services offices located in townships throughout Taiwan, while the online employment services network includes the TaiwanJobs website and the TaiwanJobs customer service center, which provide employment services on a 24-hour basis.

1. In 2017, a total of 740,408 people made use of public employment services organizations to find employment; of this total, 355,909 (48.1% of the total) were men, and 384,499 (51.9%) were women. The employment search success rate (i.e. the percentage of people who contacted public employment services organizations to find work who were successfully referred to new jobs) was 74.1%, the highest rate for three years. The employment search success rate was 74.9% for men, and 73.3% for women.

2. For both men and women, job-seekers in the 25 - 44 age range accounted for the largest share of job-seekers using public employment services. As regards educations, the largest shares were held by job-seekers educated to senior high school level (or senior vocational school level) or to university level. The category of work that male job-seekers were most interested in was "Semi-skilled and unskilled manual work etc.," accounting for 27.3% of all male job-seekers; the category of work that female job-seekers were most interested in was "Business support personnel," at 29.0% of all female job-seekers.

3. In 2017, the total number of job-seekers contacting public employment services organizations who were members of disadvantaged groups or other specially targeted groups came to 409,817 people; middle-aged and elderly job-seekers accounted for the largest share of these, at 52.0%, followed by people with physical or mental disabilities, at 10.3%.

In 2017, a total of 10,580 "New Immigrant" (i.e. foreign-born spouses of Taiwanese nationals who are resident in Taiwan) job-seekers contacted public employment services organizations. The type of work that they were most interested in securing was "Semi-skilled and unskilled manual work, etc." at 50.5% of the total, followed by "Sales and other service industry work" at 16.6%.

Keywords: Public employment services organizations; job-seekers; employment search success rate

To encourage enterprises to support employees balance their life and work, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) is organizing the 2018 Work-Life Balance Awards; the MOL hopes to guide enterprises towards the creation of an active working environment.

The MOL points out that promoting "work-life balance" is a "win-win" strategy for both workers and business-owners. By promoting measures aimed at enhancing the work-life balance, enterprises can help employees to work more efficiently, and enhance the firm's cohesion; such measures are the key to retaining high-quality human talent and achieving sustainable development.

The 2018 Work-Life Balance Awards include three sections: "Childcare-friendly," "Work flexibility," and "Employees Assistance". With the "Childcare-friendly" section, the goal is to encourage enterprises to provide support for employees' childrearing activities, for example through the establishment of child-care centers and kindergartens, the provision of child-care allowances, helping employees to arrange day-care provision, etc. The "Work flexibility" section emphasizes the provision by employers of flexible working hours or working locations to meet the needs of employees, as well as the universal provision of leaves or paid leaves prior to decrees, or the provision of innovative leave such as giving employees a day off on their birthday, providing extra vacation time for parents whose children are starting school, providing paid care leave to enable employees to look after family members; which could help employees meet both their work responsibilities and their family responsibilities. With the "Employees Assistance" section, the focus is on enterprises establishing mechanisms institutionally to help employees, assist employees in finding solutions to health, family or lifestyle problems that affect their work, and providing individualized consulting and advisory services to help employees deal with emotional and pressure issues, so that employees can stay physically and mentally healthy and perform their work with efficiency and passion.

This year (2018) will be the third time that the Work-Life Balance Awards have been held. On the previous two occasions, the Awards honored a total of 75 outstanding enterprises and 402 innovative, employee-friendly measures. Thanks to extensive publicizing of these measures, more and more enterprises are responding by implementing their own measures to improve employees' work-life balance and create a friendly working environment. For more information about the 2018 Work-Life Balance Awards, please visit the MOL's Work-Life Balance website at “https://wlb.mol.gov.tw”, or call 02-85902811.

Keywords: Work-Life Balance Awards; employee assistance; employee-friendly working environment