The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a draft labor deliberations bill, which aims to establish labor courts at all levels of the justice system to ensure fair adjudication on labor rights issues.
Labor issues covered by the bill include labor law disputes, collective agreements, resolutions passed during meetings between employers and employees, labor contracts, work habits and other aspects of employment.
It would also cover disputes pertaining to unions or their members under the Labor Union Act (工會法) or union rules, disputes involving high-school students participating in internship programs, cases about gender discrimination in the workplace and vocational hazards.
To effectively handle labor issues, courts at all levels should create labor courts or a special labor section if a court is short-staffed, the bill says.
Each labor court should be presided over by a judge with expertise on labor laws or with experience in legal cases involving labor disputes, the bill states, adding that the judges are to be selected according to rules to be set out by the Judicial Yuan.
Before a prosecution is initiated, litigants would be given three chances to reach a settlement and one chance to list their arguments in a debate presided over by a proposed labor settlement committee to be established at each court, the bill says.
Considering that some workers might not be able to afford court fees, employees who bring their cases to their local courts might be exempted from paying court fees for up to five years, the bill states.
Workers involved in lawsuits that incur a court fee of at least NT$500,000 might be exempted from paying, but if the court rules in their favor, they would be required to pay the cost later from the compensation they receive, it states.
In labor lawsuits, workers often have fewer financial resources at their disposal, said the Judicial Yuan, which proposed the bill.
To ensure timeliness and fairness, legislation that specifically addresses labor issue deliberations that operates outside the framework of the Code of Civil Procedure (民事訴訟法) is necessary, the Judicial Yuan said.
The bill was introduced to carry out a resolution passed by the Presidential Office’s National Congress on Judicial Reform, which concluded in June last year, that prioritized promoting harmony between employers and employees, and ensuring that labor issues are promptly, fairly and professionally resolved, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said.
Lai said he would ask the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Labor to engage in extensive discussions with the four legislative caucuses in the hopes the bill would soon become law.
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
A promotional event for the launch of a drinks store led to police questioning a 26-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), the Taichung Police Department said yesterday. Police said that they questioned Chang and forwarded the case to prosecutors, accusing her of producing, distributing, broadcasting or selling pornography. Police said she faces charges related to the alleged distribution of indecent photographs on Twitter and using overtly sexual innuendos to promote the store on Monday night. Officers stumbled upon the content during a routine Internet “patrol.” Chang faces a prison sentence of up to two years and up to a NT$90,000 fine if found guilty
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
RSS