Taiwan will have to overcome numerous challenges to reverse the low labor participation rate of middle-aged and elderly people, despite a draft act the Cabinet approved last month, experts said.
The bill, which covers rules allowing employers to offer contracts to workers aged 65 or older, increases the flexibility of existing regulations, which include mandatory retirement at 65.
The new rules are a legislative breakthrough and should boost re-employment and improve the labor force participation rate, said Hsin Ping-lung (辛炳隆), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development.
However, under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the fixed-term contracts outlined in the draft are only permitted for certain types of jobs, while the relaxation of age restrictions could lead to employers cutting labor costs by hiring older people instead of younger workers, Hsin said.
Yang Tsung-bin (楊宗斌), a spokesman for online job bank yes123, said that the government should create a friendlier employment market for middle-aged and elderly people by revising regulations or adopting measures to encourage employers to hire them, such as through the provision of subsidies.
Clear-cut regulations governing new contracts for older people need to be formulated, including contract terms that are at least one year in duration, to ensure that their experience is passed on to younger employees, Yang said.
In response to the relatively low labor force participation rate of those aged 55 or over amid a rapidly aging population, the Cabinet on July 19 approved a draft act that would allow employers to hire people aged at least 65 on fixed-term contracts while ensuring that they are given fair employment opportunities.
The bill stipulates that employers cannot subject people to unfair treatment because of their age. Discrimination refers to disadvantageous actions taken against job applicants or employees related to their recruitment, job allocation, performance evaluation, promotion, training, wages and benefits, retirement or redundancy payments.
The draft proposes fines ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$9,561 to US$47,807) for breaches of age discrimination rules.
Middle-aged workers are defined as those aged 45 to 65, while elderly workers are those over 65, the draft rules say.
Last year, about 4.6 million middle-aged or elderly people were working in the private sector — an increase of about 1.01 million from 10 years earlier — with about 280,000 of those aged 65 or older, data compiled by the Ministry of Labor showed.
Yu Ai-chun (余璦君), director of the ministry’s Senior Workforce Development Service Center in New Taipei City, said that since the center was established five years ago, it has helped 7,000 middle-aged and elderly people return to the workplace and matched 4,000 of them with employers.
Taiwan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world and its society is rapidly aging.
The Ministry of the Interior last year announced that Taiwan had officially become an “aged society,” with those aged 65 or over accounting for 14.05 percent of the population.
The National Development Council expects Taiwan to become a “super-aged society” — defined as at least 20 percent of the population being 65 or older — by 2026.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS