eNewsletter

President Ma Ying-jeou has announced that he will reduce working hours and regulate unpaid leave in order to fight the current slow economic growth.  Ma has also proposed changing current labor laws to decrease unemployment.

Currently, Taiwan’s work week is 84 hours every two weeks.  Ma is proposing to cut the work week to 40 hours a week.  This will allow employees to have better working hours, but does negatively affect employers’ flexibility in arranging work schedules.  The new proposal prevents employers from assigning employees to work for more hours one week and fewer the next (i.e. 54 hours on week and 30 the next). However, the government claims that there should not be a significant negative impact on businesses.

President Ma is also planning on regulating unpaid leave.  With the economic downturn, many companies in Taiwan have been placing employees on unpaid leave to save on labor costs.  This places employees in a difficult situation as they are not getting paid for indefinite periods of time, yet cannot look for new employment.  Ma plans to restrict such practices so that firms will only be able to use it as a last resort. These regulations include restricting how often firms can use unpaid leave and the circumstances in which unpaid leave can be used.

Finally, Ma has proposed more labor benefits to help the unemployed find jobs. He plans to make it easier to apply for unemployment benefits. Additionally, the government will increase subsidies for works to learn a second skill or be retrained in their current position to increase their chances of being rehired.