More than one-quarter of employees in Taiwan have to deal with company business outside working hours, putting in an average of 4.7 hours off the clock every month, an annual survey released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor said.
The survey, which was conducted from June 2021 to May last year and focused on workers’ living and employment conditions, found that 25.2 percent of respondents worked off the clock, one percentage point higher than in the ministry’s previous survey.
Off-the-clock activities were defined as receiving work-related messages from employers via electronic communication methods, such as phones, mobile phone apps and social media, after getting off work, the ministry said.
Employees who received work-related messages worked an average of 4.7 hours per month beyond their regular working hours, up 0.1 hours from the previous survey.
Of the respondents, 42 percent worked overtime, down 4.3 percentage points from the previous survey, but their average overtime hours rose 0.1 hours to 15 hours.
By industry, overtime work was most common in the electricity and natural gas supply sectors, with 58.6 percent of respondents in those sectors working overtime, followed by workers in the public administration and national defense/compulsory social insurance sectors with 54.8 percent.
Those working in the professional, scientific and technical services sectors placed third with 54.7 percent, and those in the publishing, audio-visual and information and communications sectors were fourth with 54.2 percent.
Of the respondents, 84.1 percent who worked overtime were paid for it or given paid time off.
Meanwhile, 73.4 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with their overall employment conditions, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous survey.
Gender equality, good working relationships and supervisors’ concern for employees were the three areas that the majority of respondents considered satisfactory.
Wages, employee performance appraisals and promotion systems, and workloads were the three major causes of job dissatisfaction, cited by 73.6 percent, 71.3 percent and 64.1 percent of respondents respectively.
In terms of remote work, 72 percent of respondents said they were not given the option to work from home.
The poll also found that 86.2 percent of respondents did not have any retirement plans, while 13.8 percent did have plans and expected to retire at the age of 61.3 on average.
Of the respondents, 66.9 percent said that labor insurance and pension funds were their main sources of income for retirement, while 66.2 percent said personal savings were.
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