The Council of Labor Affairs is mulling heavier punishments for employers or managers who are found responsible for the death of an employee from overwork, council Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday.
She made the announcement while answering questions from lawmakers and reporters at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
Following a series of widely reported cases of death from overwork, especially in high-technology industries, labor groups have in recent months called for tighter regulations to protect workers from being worked to death.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
They have also lobbied for harsher penalties against employers who have directly or indirectly contributed to excessive overtime work, resulting in health issues or even death for the employees.
“The council is in discussion with labor and legal experts to explore the possibility of imposing criminal liability for employers who have contributed to workers’ death from overwork, in addition to heavier monetary penalties,” Wang said.
However, because three rulings must be passed before a defendant may be found guilty of a criminal offense, it could take years before justice is served to victimized employees, so this may not be the most efficient way to take care of such matters, she said.
The council said last week it planned to revise the law to increase the fines to NT$200,000 for businesses abusing “the system of job responsibility” and ignoring the health of their employees.
In its present form, the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) stipulates a maximum fine of NT$60,000 for employers who abuse the system.
Critics ask why an employee’s health could be worth so little, especially in light of the recent deaths blamed on overwork.
The latest council statistics show the average Taiwanese worker put in 2,156 hours on the job in 2008, or about 41 hours per week, which is about 20 percent more than workers in Japan and 50 percent more than those in Germany.
Wang also said the Act contained loopholes such as Article 84-1, which 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.”
The article has been widely criticized as providing a legal way for private security firms to exploit their guards, since such jobs are categorized as “monitoring or intermittent jobs” and therefore fall into this category.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and