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Scholars suggest revising legislation for labor standards

A group of scholars yesterday urged the government to amend the Labor Standards Law to offer greater room and flexibility for employers and employees in negotiating working terms.

The academics made the appeal at a seminar on Taiwan's labor policy and disputes between labor and management, sponsored by the KMT-affiliated National Policy Research Foundation and chaired by former Council of Labor Affairs chairman Chan Hou-sheng (詹火生).

Chinese Culture University professor Yang Tung-hsuan (楊通軒) said the Labor Standards Law is mainly designed to protect the rights and interests of the employee.

"But many provisions in the current law, enacted in 1984, are too rigid and strict on employers," Yang said. He added that some requirements, including demanding that employers pay for social insurance programs, would hinder local enterprises' competitiveness after Taiwan's accession to the WTO early next year.

National Taiwan University professor Wu Chung-chi (吳忠吉) echoed Yang's words, saying that local companies must adjust their structures as well as their management and marketing strategies to cope with rapidly changing global economic trends after Taiwan's WTO entry.

"However, some existing Labor Standards Law provisions may hamper certain badly-needed flexible adjustments," Wu said, adding that the law should be revised to ease restrictions on labor working terms.

By so doing, Wu said, employers and their employees will have greater room to negotiate commercially viable and mutually acceptable contracts.

Legislator-elect Chiu Yi (邱毅), also an economist, said all labor-related laws should be made more flexible to allow labor and management to conduct rational consultations on working terms and conditions.
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