Lawmakers across party lines expect swift approval on Friday for amendments to two out of the four acts aimed at encouraging the private sector to reduce working hours and raise wages for employees.
The proposed amendments to the Company Act (公司法), the Factory Act (工廠法), the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act (中小企業發展條例) would bring wage increases to employees by requiring firms to establish profit-sharing programs.
Two proposed amendments — one to the Company Act calling for businesses to allocate a lump sum or percentage of earnings toward profit-sharing programs, and another to the Factory Act requiring profitable companies to distribute earnings to employees — are expected to spark the least dissent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
Therefore, they could be approved on Friday, Lai added.
Meanwhile, businesses said that the proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act, which would levy fines of up to NT$5 million (US$160,761) on firms that fail to establish profit-sharing, is likely to create standoffs and rifts between employers and employees.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said however that although the opposition party supports the move, it has lingering concerns on the proposed amendments to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act.
Legislators said that the amendments to the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act are likely to see the most difficulty in getting approved.
The proposal stipulates that following six consecutive months in which the unemployment rate has remained under 3.78 percent, companies would be able to claim 130 percent of the amount of raises given to their employees as deductible expenses on their taxes. However, the deductible amount excludes raises that come from minimum-wage adjustments.
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