萬國法律事務所

The amendments to the Labor Standards Act (LSA), which excluded foreign labor from the minimum wage requirement, has been approved by Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan and delivered to the relevant committee for review.

With the amendment to Article 21 of the LSA, the Act will only impose the minimum wages requirement to Taiwan citizens. As such, the wages of foreign labors will no longer be protected by the LSA.

Furthermore, in order to prevent job opportunities for local laborers from being affected by the import of foreign labor, Article 1 of the LSA will be amended to stipulate that the appointment, approval, management, ratio, collection of Employment Security Fees of foreign workers shall be determined by the Central Government through administrative orders. Hence, the LSA will serve to exclusively protect the rights and interests of local labor where laws governing foreign labor shall be determined separately.

The main propose for pushing through the amendments is to encourage overseas Taiwanese to return and to invest in Taiwan. Most Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, do not have a minimum wages requirement for foreign labor. In comparison, Taiwan provides relatively higher wages to foreign labor, although in reality, a significant portion of the wages is actually earned by the agents rather than by the laborers. Thus, by abolishing the minimum wage requirement, Taiwan hopes to not only be able to attract overseas Taiwanese investors to return by offering lower labor costs, but also to lower the labor costs currently paid by local employers.

Also, President Ma pointed out that the Government is considering lifting the minimum wage requirement for foreign labor in the Government Authorized Special Trade and Operation Zones and Free Trade Zones to encourage the return of Taiwanese investors.