10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828
The most important measure is income support, such as disease prevention compensation during isolation or quarantine and vocational training living allowances during unpaid leaves.
application/pdf
1561-8048
10828
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en
Wanning Hsu
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Living allowances
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Taiwan
Text.Serial.Journal
https://illej.unibo.it/
13
National Reports
2020-04-16
2020-04-16
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
ILLeJ
Wanning Hsu
2020/04/16
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828
National Taiwan University
1561-8048
1S
Living allowances
en
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Taiwan
https://illej.unibo.it/article/download/10828/10736
13
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Taiwan                                                 Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Wanning Hsu                                                                    Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
nadiahsu@ntu.edu.tw                                              Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                             ISSN 1561-8048
                                                              https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828




                    COVID-19 and Labour Law: Taiwan
                            Wanning Hsu*

                                               Abstract

     The most important measure is income support, such as disease prevention compensation
     during isolation or quarantine and vocational training living allowances during unpaid leaves.



     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Disease prevention compensation; Vocational training;
     Living allowances




    Upon the virus outbreak in Taiwan, a national-level “state of emergency declaration”
 has not yet been issued, but “Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures
 for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens” came into force in Taiwan1. The measures
 taken by the Government are mainly in accordance with the Communicable Disease
 Control Act2 .
    In particular, the following measures emerged:
      •      When communicable diseases occur or are expected to occur, the public shall
             cooperate and accept the inspections, treatment, immunization or other disease
             control and quarantine measures conducted by the competent authorities
             (Article 36);
      •      Competent authorities may detain, for the reason of case confirmation,
             persons who have been in contact with patients affected by communicable
             diseases or who are suspected of being infected; when necessary, they may be
             ordered to move to a designated place for required measures such as
             examination, immunization, medication, control of certain designated areas, or
             isolation (Article 48 I);
      •      The central competent authority may implement disease control measures
             concerning risk groups for communicable diseases and specific target
             population; the target populations to act according to the regulations, the
             scopes of the regulations and other matters to be complied with shall be
             decided by the central competent authority (Article 48 II);



 *
     Professor, National Taiwan University.
 1 https://mohwlaw.mohw.gov.tw/ENG/EngContent.aspx?msgid=1051&KeyWord=
 2 https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=L0050001
 Wanning Hsu                                                              Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                         Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                            Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                              Section: National Reports




     •         Competent authorities may impose quarantine or measures on persons
               entering, exiting the country (border), and may collect associated fees (Article
               58).

   At the national level, there has not been any form of social dialogue and social partners
have not been involved in the legislative process. At the workplace level, the Government
encourages employers to make agreements with their workers to rearrange the working
hours, wages, leaves, and so on.
   There are also some guidelines and rules on these issues, which are as follows:
    •       Individuals assigned by a competent health authority of any level to home
            isolation, home quarantine, group isolation, or group quarantine, and family
            members who take leave or cannot work due to providing care for isolated or
            quarantined individuals may apply for disease prevention compensation from
            the starting date to the ending date of the isolation or quarantine once the
            competent health authority deems that the isolated or quarantined individual
            has not violated related isolation or quarantine regulations.
    •       Authorities (agencies), enterprises, schools, legal entities, and organizations that
            pay employees salary during their leave period may deduct 200% of their salary
            payment from the taxable income tax in the current year. The same shall apply
            to salaries for employees who take leave due to response measures conducted
            in accordance with orders issued by the Commander of the Central Epidemic
            Command Center during their leave period.
    •       For individuals assigned to home isolation, home quarantine, group isolation,
            or group quarantine, the authorities (agencies), enterprises, schools, legal
            entities, and organizations shall provide disease prevention isolation leave
            during the isolation or quarantine period and may not treat them as absent
            without reason, force them to take personal leave or other leaves, deduct
            attendance bonuses, dismiss them, or impose other unfavorable penalties. The
            same shall apply to family members who take leave to care for isolated or
            quarantined individuals.
    •       For workers who are on unpaid leave, the Ministry of Labor has amended the
            "Charge and Restart" program on February 21st, 2020, thus expanding the
            program to include communicable disease control reasons stated in
            Communicable Disease Control Act and raises the subsidy for labors and
            business entities (Point 1, 4, 9-1). This makes the program applicable for both
            the workers and the employers that have agreed to take 16 or more hours of
            unpaid leave per 2-weeks due to this pandemic and have reported this
            agreement to local labor administration. Accordingly, workers can attend
            vocational training held by business entities, regional branches, or
            commissioned organizations free of charge, and receive subsidizing allowances




https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828                                                           2
    Wanning Hsu                                                              Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                            Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                               Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                 Section: National Reports




                  according to the attended training hours; business entities can receive up to 3.5
                  million NTD subsidy for holding vocational training3.
       •          For the difference in wages during the unpaid leaves, the “Work At Ease”
                  program, which was formulated on March 27th, 2020 and is retroactive to
                  January, 2020, subsidizes wage difference to stabilize employment (Point 1).
                  For the workers that are insured under Employment Insurance and have been
                  sent on unpaid leave for 30 consecutive days and are listed and reported by
                  local labor administration (Point 4), the program subsidizes these workers
                  monthly with 50% of the wage difference before and after the unpaid leaves,
                  the subsidy can be up to 11100 NTD per month and can be received up to 6
                  months (Point 5, 6).
       •          To decrease the impact of the pandemic on the employers and encourage the
                  enterprises that send workers on unpaid leave to improve their equipment
                  during this time, the Ministry of Labor formulated Directions for Subsidizing
                  Business Entities to Improve Workplace Environment and Workers' Physical
                  and Mental Health, which prioritizes subsidizing those whose operations have
                  been affected by COVID-19 (Point 3) and the categories applicable for
                  subsidization includes measures taken for the improvement of workplace
                  environment and workers' physical and mental health.
       •          Bureau of Labor Insurance announced on March 12th, 2020 the “Assisting
                  Measures to Postpone Payments for Labor and Employment Insurance and
                  Contributions for Labor Pensions”4. According to this, the employers who
                  have reported sending workers on unpaid leave or those stated under Article 9
                  Paragraph 3 of the Special Act for Prevention for COVID-19 and to Relieve
                  and Promote Economy can postpone their payment for labor and employment
                  insurance and contributions for labor pensions for 6 months without late
                  payment charges.
       •          To assist business entities in implementing regulations regarding occupational
                  safety and health and in strengthening their abilities to prevent the danger of
                  exposure to the biological pathogen and the pandemic from spreading in the
                  workplace, Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the
                  Direction for Protection of Occupational Safety and Health Against COVID-
                  19 on January 30th, 2020. The direction mandates business entities to set up
                  risk control for occupational hazard, to ensure the health of the workers, and
                  aside from cooperating with the preventions measures announced by Centers
                  for Disease Control, business entities should take necessary management
                  measures to cope with the development of the pandemic and the need for
                  workers’ protection during the pandemic. For example, having the appropriate
                  and adequate amount of face masks at hand, restrain from prohibiting workers
                  wearing face masks, setting up measures of taking temperatures and screening.


3   https://www.wda.gov.tw/cp.aspx?n=E584F68256160487
4 https://www.bli.gov.tw/0104102.html#



https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828                                                              3
 Wanning Hsu                                                                Italian Labour Law e-Journal
                                                                           Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                              Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                Section: National Reports




               It also implements higher obligations for the employers of high-risk tasks
               workers (e.g. medical facilities, transport stations), such as setting up strategies
               and procedures to meet emergencies and reinforce cleaning and sanitization.

   Aside from these, the Administrative Yuan held a press conference for relieving
measures on April 7th, 2020, stating that it will subsidize self-employer 10 thousand per
person, 3 months each time, draft out “low-interest loan for workers” and “Start Working
Right Away at Ease Program” to release 60 thousand hourly-wage working opportunities in
public sectors, which will enable labors whose insurance enrollment falls under the 23,800
NTD bracket and are affected by COVID-19 can start working right away, for no longer
than 6 months, the program is planned to start next week.
   Though the Central Epidemic Command Center has announced for people to try their
best to keep the social distance of 1 meter outdoors and 1.5 meters indoors, the Ministry of
Labor has yet systematically advertised to "work from home". Once the pandemic worsens
and working from home becomes inevitable, disputes may arise upon how to ensure the
rights of both the labor and the management.




Copyright © 2020 Wanning Hsu. This article is released under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License




https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10828                                                             4
