The Council of Labor Affairs yesterday said it would coordinate with local labor bureaus to cap the maximum number of work hours per month in sectors prone to abuse of labor regulation loopholes.
The announcement came after the Taipei City Government’s Department of Labor capped the number of hours at 260 per month for workers in special industries catalogued in Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Death from overwork has especially plagued workers in special industries, such as private security firms, as the act contains a clause that makes it possible for employers in those sectors to demand that their employees work long hours.
Article 84-1 states that workers in certain industries “may arrange their own working hours, regular days off, national holidays and female workers’ night work through other agreements with their employers.”
Private security firms, which are categorized as “monitoring or intermittent jobs,” fall into this category and employers have taken advantage of this regulatory loophole to demand excessive work hours from their employees.
The issue gained prominence -after a 29-year-old security guard surnamed Chiang (姜), an employee at a private security firm since 2001, died on the job late last year after putting in excessive overtime.
According to the company’s policy, security guards must work 12 hours a day and get one day off every four days. Their total working hours are 288 hours per month, with 73 days of leave each year.
Chiang died on Dec. 6 last year from a stroke.
The council said counseling private security companies on adhering to labor standards that consider the wellbeing of workers was a priority and that it would coordinate with local labor bureaus to set maximum work hours and regulate work conditions as applicable under the act.
These would include requiring that an employee take at least one day off per workweek, that appropriate scheduling for taking off national holidays be implemented and that employee timesheets provide reasonable work hours.
In related news, the council said recent inspections at 50 hospitals and medical facilities showed the most common labor violations were long workweeks with little time off.
Of the 50 regional hospitals and medical centers inspected by the bureau, 16, or 32 percent, had a total number of 30 labor violations.
Of the 30 violations found, 19, or 63 percent, involved working hours, while six involved not -implementing a requirement that employees be scheduled at least one day off per workweek.
Employers who did not keep updated and accurate records of employee working times were also common, representing four of the labor violations and applying to 8 percent of the hospitals inspected.
Five hospitals also failed to award employees extra pay for working on holidays and putting in overtime.
The council has requested that hospitals make immediate improvements and instructed local labor bureaus to issue fines in accordance with labor regulations.
The council also requested the Department of Health to increase supervision at hospitals found to be in violation of labor regulations.
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