To deal with Taiwan's growing unemployment problem, the government must make it easier for workers to change jobs, a member of the National Science Council's Labor Issues Project said yesterday.
Yu Ruoh-rong (
Yu proposed amending presently strict pension regulations, adjusting related rules for working hours and the minimum wage and granting more financial aid to small businesses.
"From an economic point of view, job transfers can help the labor market by encouraging efficient management," Yu said. "But current regulations, such as those linking a person's pension with a specific work place, prevent laborers from switching jobs."
Under the Labor Standards Law, employers are required to pay fees every month into a pension. But only those who have worked for a company for over 25 years or those that have worked for the same company for 15 years and are aged over 55 are eligible for such a pension.
Yu also said that job transfers would allow employers and employees that are dissatisfied with one another the opportunity to find more amenable arrangments.
Yu proposed that the government allow a laborer to build up a personal pension account, which one can accrue over the years regardless of which organizations they work for.
Chen Chung-liang (陳忠良) from the Council of Labor Affairs said the amendment Yu suggested was proposed to the Cabinet in 1997 and shelved by the then-KMT regime due to concerns that employers were opposed to the change.
The draft was returned to the council for further revision in May.
In addition, Yu pointed out that, compared to female populations in other countries such as Japan and those in Europe and America, a higher rate of Taiwanese women fail to return to the labor market after marriage or childbirth. She said only about 40 percent of Taiwanese females over the age of 40 take part in the labor market.
Yu believes that these female populations prefer part-time jobs due to flexible working hours, but that in Taiwan, there are fewer such jobs.
She said employers, concerned with slow economic growth, may not be able to afford to pay the minimum wages to workers as stipulated by the Labor Standard Law. Yu suggests allowing employers and workers to negotiate working conditions by themselves.
Chen Chu (陳菊), chairwoman of the Council of Labor Affairs, yesterday said such regulations should not be removed, but adjustments, such as the lowering of the minimum wage, could be discussed.
The scholar also suggested that more small business loans to individuals who are forced to leave the labor market could ease the nation's heightening unemployment problem.
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