The July meeting of the minimum wage committee will this year involve fewer government officials and more representatives from labor and business groups, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) said yesterday.
The council has been mulling this measure since January, when CLA Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said the composition of the committee should be changed to ensure greater representation for labor, business and academic groups.
The minimum wage committee currently consists of 17 to 23 members, including eight from the government, four representing labor groups, four business groups and the rest academics and experts. Officials attending meetings come from various government agencies, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, with the committee chaired by the CLA minister.
The new minimum wage committee would have 21 members, with the number of labor and business representatives increased to seven, government officials cut to three and academics and experts taking four seats, said Sun Bi-shia (孫碧霞), director of the council’s Department of Labor Standards.
The new set up would mean labor and business groups would each make up one-third of the committee, though it would still be chaired by the CLA minister.
The council has been considering a change after criticism that it gave its own officials a majority on the committee. However, if officials now fail to attend meetings and the decision-making process is overseen by a neutral third party, some say that the government will have effectively withdrawn from the process.
In order to reach a compromise, the CLA has settled on taking a diminished but supportive role, Sun said.
A minimum wage adjustment meeting is held every year in July. The minimum monthly wage of NT$17,280 was last raised in 2007.
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