Nearly one in four employers in Taiwan failed to comply with labor regulations for student and part-time workers during inspections, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The ministry last year conducted 1,800 labor inspections focusing on the rights of student and part-time workers, uncovering contraventions in 448 cases — a rate of 24.89 percent — including several well-known companies and even state-owned enterprises.
It issued NT$12.82 million (US$439,267) in fines, and three employers were referred to prosecutors for assigning underage workers to night shifts, which is illegal, it said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The most common contravention involved failing to pay correct wages for work performed on designated rest days, accounting for 133 cases, the ministry said.
That was followed by failures to pay double wages for work performed on national holidays (113 cases), and requiring employees to work more than six consecutive days (109 cases), ministry data showed.
The restaurant industry was the worst offender, accounting for 48 percent of all contraventions, the ministry said.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration head Lin Yu-tang (林毓堂) said the contravention rate for student and part-time workers was higher than the 18 to 20 percent average observed across all industries.
The youth unemployment rate in May was 7.57 percent — down 0.7 and 0.9 percentage points from the same period one and three years ago respectively, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.
It was also the lowest May figure in 18 years.
The decline suggests that more young people are joining the workforce through summer jobs, either to earn income or gain early exposure to the job market, Hung said, urging employers to fully comply with labor regulations.
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