To protect the legal rights of workers and to improve their working environment for better mental and physical health, the MOL plans to implement a two-year “Project to Monitor Business Entities in Abiding by the Related Regulations on Labor Conditions.” This project subsidizes competent authorities of municipal cities and county governments to recruit 325 labor inspectors within two years (164 inspectors in the second half of 2014 and 325 inspectors in 2015). This new addition of labor inspectors will predominately be inspecting industries that are likely to impose long working hours that could result in overworked, and businesses that have poor records of abiding by regulations on labor conditions. Also, this addition of manpower will ensure high intensity and high frequency inspections to monitor business entities in their provision of a working environment that balances work and physical and mental health, and in implementing a global value of decent work. Furthermore, this project responds to the statement made in the 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that Taiwan significantly lacked labor inspection manpower.
According to statistics from the MOL, industries with relatively high violations to labor condition regulations in 2013 were hotel and restaurant industry, arts, entertainment and leisure service industry, support service industry (including security service industry), transportation and warehouse industry, medical and health industry, and social work service industry. The types of violations included not paying additional wages according to regulations for extended work hours (not paying for overtime work), extending work hours beyond what is regulated by laws (extensive overtime), record of work time not available according to regulations, not paying wages directly to the workers in full, and not paying for regulated and special leaves according to regulations.
The MOL reinstates that regulations on labor conditions are fundamental for the protection of workers. Any reason for and any form of violations by business entities are not tolerated by the MOL. The MOL will begin to subsidize municipal and county authorities from the latter half of 2014 onward to hire professionals with graduate degrees in labor, social, and law related fields to carry out high intensity and high frequency inspections targeting repeated offending enterprises. The MOL expects to conduct 10,000 inspections in the latter half of 2014, and in 2015 increases such inspections to 40,000 times. This increase in inspections demonstrates MOL’s determination to show that authority is not to be challenged.
OSHA Director-General, Mr. Fuh Hwan-Ran stated that employees are the most important asset to an enterprise. Maintaining employees’ good mental and physical health is beneficial to enterprise productivity, quality, creativity, and morale. DG Fuh urges all employers to adjust their strategies to business operation, to adopt working hour management and appropriate work distribution measures so as to manifest the company’s competitiveness. Business entities that have not adjusted their management strategies, resulting in extensive overtime work, or have failed to remunerate overtime wages in accordance with the laws, or have repeatedly sacrificed the rights of the workers to gain profits for the company will be severely punished and fined a maximum of NT$300,000. The competent authority may publish the names of the business entities and their legal representatives once violations are confirmed.