萬國法律事務所

Recent draft amendments to the Labor Standards Act proposed by the Council of Labor Affairs(CLA) prohibit the use of temporary workers in seven main industries, including the medical, security and aviation industries. The said draft amendments also limit the use of temporary workers in a company to 3% of the total workforce of the company. The CLA will submit said draft amendments to the Executive Yuan next month and estimate that the draft amendments will be sent for review by the Legislative Yuan in the next term.

The workers referred to here are those that are employed by temporary work agencies, which are assigned to various companies as temporary workers. This arrangement has helped many companies to save substantial amounts on administrative costs; however, recently there have been concerns that the interest and benefits of these temporary workers have been neglected.

An official at CLA stated that should the new amendments be enacted, industries will be prohibited from hiring temporary workers; and temporary workers will not be permitted to hold certain positions such as public transport drivers, sailor, and miners.

The CLA also proposed that the amount of temporary workers that company employs should not exceed 3% of its total workforce. However, with the approval of labor unions or through labor-management conferences, companies may extend the limitation to a range from 5% - 20%. The CLA also stated that the new proposed amendments will require temporary work agencies to employ the temporary workers for long term durations and are not allowed to sign fixed term contracts with the workers.

The said draft amendments also focus on the rights and interests of workers during company mergers. Companies will be required to transfer and maintain all of its workers during mergers and will not be permitted to lay-off any workers due to the merger. Only when workers refuse to transfer to a new company location will the company be allowed to lay-off workers. The proposed amendments also provide workers a “consideration period”, during which a worker can terminate his/her employment within six months after a merger and collect severance payment.

The above amendments will only be applicable one year after the amendments are enacted. Nonetheless, they have raised concerns that the limitation imposed on the numbers of temporary workers allowed in a company will increase the labor cost of companies and if companies are prohibited to lay off workers, this will impose a burden on the company and subsequently affect the competiveness of the company.