萬國法律事務所

The Amendment to the Labor Union Act has passed its third reading recently. One of the most significant changes is that teachers will be allowed to form labor unions now. Despite that, other occupations such as servicemen in the military, workers in the Ministry of National Defense and arms companies are still not permitted to form labor unions. With the amendments, workers of different companies can form labor unions together. Teachers, however, will only be allowed to form labor unions with teachers from other schools. In other words, teachers will not be allowed to form labor unions within their own school.

While the amendments are very much welcomed among most workers, teachers are generally not happy with the restriction on teachers’ unions. The Taiwan Federation of Trade Unions states that the purpose of prohibiting teachers from forming labor unions in their own school is to avoid affecting the unity of teachers in the country. Nonetheless, the National Teachers’ Association (NTA) questions whether the prohibition is a breach of human rights of teachers and whether the rights of teachers could be sufficiently protected with such prohibition.

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), on the other hand, has stated that the three labor laws, namely, the Labor Union Act, Collective Bargaining Agreement Act and the Settlement of Labor Disputes Act, co-exist in order to protect the rights of workers simultaneously and with the implementation of the new amendments to the Labor Union Act next year in May, the rights of workers will be sufficiently protected.

The amendments provide that companies with 30 or more workers are allowed to form a union. For companies that have less than 30, the workers are allowed to form labor unions with workers from other companies as long as those other workers work within the same industry. The CLA believes that the amendment to the Act will encourage the establishment of more unions and if more than half of the workers in a company join a labor union, the labor union will be able to negotiate with the employer a collective agreement as provided for under the Collective Bargaining Agreement Act.

Another issue that has raised concerns is whether it is ­mandatory for workers to join a labor union. The CLA said that the amended Act strongly encourages workers to join the union, but workers are still free to decide whether or not they will join one and they will not be penalized for not joining a union. Other important amendments to the Labor Union Act include the following: 1) the membership fees of a labor union must not be less than 0.5%of the employee’s monthly salary; 2) the directors and supervisors of labor unions are no longer limited to ROC citizens; and 3) the directors and supervisors may apply for leaves to deal with union matters and the employer will be fined for refusing to grant such leave.