AmCham’s Human Resources Committee last year raised an important issue regarding how the Ministry of Labor (MOL) determines whether a given labor agreement constitutes an employment, mandate, or independent contractor relationship. The MOL makes this determination based on a 25-item checklist that includes such criteria as whether the business entity provides certain labor benefits; whether…
Offshore Wind Enters Commercial Stage President Tsai Ing-wen attended the inauguration of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, Formosa 1, on November 12 in a ceremony at the Longfeng Fishing Harbor in Miaoli. Located between two and six kilometers off the coast of Miaoli, the NT$18.7 billion (over US$623 million), 128-megawatt (MW) project is designed…
The rise in the number of elderly in Taiwan is often broadly couched as a demographic and economic challenge. But for the millions of families struggling to care for frail and disabled family members, the struggle is all too personal. Confucian cultural values of “filial piety” forbid the placement of elders in retirement homes or…
Low salaries and poor career prospects leave Taiwan’s pool of talent and youth vulnerable to China’s advances. When Eileen Chang’s university professor told her about an internship at an entertainment and sports company in Wuhan in central China, she was immediately intrigued. Chang (not her real name) had heard that salaries would likely be higher than…
BY NATHAN SNYDER AND JEFFREY LIEN Early this year, Taiwan’s legislature passed a set of amendments to the Labor Standards Act (LSA), Taiwan’s core statute governing labor and employment. These amendments, which were officially implemented on March 1, 2018, feature changes intended to provide greater flexibility to employers whose business needs may make compliance with the…
The proposed new legislation would make tax and other incentives available to international talent. To remedy the serious brain drain in Taiwan and counter aggressive talent poaching by neighboring countries, the government has proposed legislation to help attract and retain foreign white-collar workers. The main provisions would relax current restrictions on the hiring of…
As part-time or short-term jobs become more common, Taiwan is considering legislation to regulate non-conventional employment. In Taiwan, as elsewhere across the globe, freelance and contingent work is on the rise as businesses shift their employment models away from the 9-to-5 jobs that have traditionally dominated labor markets. As of May 2016, according to survey…
In order to increase business competitiveness while continuing to protect the local labor force, the American Chamber of Commerce’s Human Resources Committee recommends that the Ministry of Labor (MOL) make the Labor Standards Law (LSL) more flexible and more predictable. The current labor laws regulating overtime work and employer-employee relations are based on traditional labor-intensive…
BY PAUL J. CASSINGHAM AND JEFFREY LIEN Like many jurisdictions, Taiwan has long imposed restrictions on the enforceability of employee post-termination noncompetition agreements. For many years, Taiwan courts have enforced such agreements only if the employer had a business interest worthy of protection, and only if the scope and duration of the noncompetition obligation were…
A long-stalled cooperative educational program may have a new lease on life. For years, AmCham Taipei has emphasized the potential value for Taiwan of allowing – in fact, encouraging – prestigious foreign universities and other educational institutions to set up degree and/or non-degree programs in this country as they have done elsewhere across the region…
