萬國法律事務所

In the past, workers in Taiwan were often unsuccessful in claiming compensation from employers for occupational accidents/hazards due to key evidence, such as attendance records, being withheld by employers. Taiwan’s Executive Yuan passed recently a draft bill to amend the Occupational Accident Labor Protection Act to shift the burden of proof from workers to employers. In the future, when occupational accidents/hazards occur, the employer in question will be obliged to prove that it had done all it could to prevent the accident/hazard in order to avoid compensatory liability.

The draft bill also increases employers’ liability for occupational accidents. If an employer should, but did not, enroll the worker in labor insurance and an occupational accident occurs, a fine in the amount of between 60 to 300 thousand New Taiwan dollars may be imposed. If the employer fails to compensate the worker in accordance with the Labor Standards Act, a fine that is 1.2 times the compensation amount will be imposed. The same fine may be imposed on employers with less than 4 workers who fail to compensate a worker by law after the occurrence of an occupational hazard, although such a company with less than 4 workers is not mandatorily required by law to obtain labor insurance.

Moreover, the Occupational Accident Labor Protection Act currently applies only to lawful workers and illegal foreign workers are not eligible to receive occupational accident compensation. The new draft bill will also include illegal foreign workers into the scope of protection and, in the future, if occupational accidents occur to foreign workers who have left their original employers, compensation for death (45 months of basic salary) can be obtained. Approximately 27,000 foreign workers will benefit from this new coverage, if needed. However, only foreign workers legally working in Taiwan will benefit from the new draft bill. Foreign workers who have come to Taiwan illegally or on a tourist visa will not be protected.