Dear Friends:

The Labor Incident Act (LIA) will take effect from 1 January 2020.  In addition to the labor professional tribunal (or labor court ), the LIA also provides various provisions such as mediation procedures, judicial power and jurisdiction of labor issues, assisting party of employees, lower court fees, authority of the court, burden of proof, litigation right of unions and injunction proceeding.  To implement the LIA, the Judicial Yuan further announced the Labor Incident Rules (LI Rules) and Enforcement Rules of the Labor Incident Act (Enforcement Rules) on 15 November 2019.  These rules will also take effect from 1 January 2020.  We summarize below.

1. Labor Incident Rule (LIR)

(1) For any labor incident wholly or partially involving intellectual property issue, the case may be heard by the labor court (LC) in accordance with the LIA and LI Rues.  On the other hand, if the case is heard by the Intellectual Property Court (IPC), then the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act and Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Rule shall govern. (Article 4)

(2) For any labor incident wholly or partially involving intellectual property issue litigated by an employer with the IPC, then the employee may apply to transfer the case to the LC for its handling.  On the other hand, if the employer files the case with the LC under the ordinary court system, the employee may also apply to transfer the case to the IPC. (Article 7)

(3) Parties in an ordinary proceeding cannot add claims or raise counterclaims related to labor in the same proceeding. (Article 6)

(4) If one labor case contains several claims and part of the claims is subject to mediation before litigation, then the whole case shall be mediated first.  An interested third party can join the mediation with the judge's permission. The judge may also inform the interested third party to join the mediation. (Articles 14 and 21)

(5) Different from Article 419 and 436-12 of the Taiwan Code of Civil Procedure (TCCP), the court cannot order an immediate oral argument on motion by one party after an unsuccessful labor mediation, provided that the provision does not apply if the applicant waives the right to veto. (Article 44)

(6) If the mediation transcript was signed by the parties and has recorded agreement between the parties on the claims, facts, evidence or other sanctioned items, then the transcript shall be deemed as a written agreement under Article 30 of the LIA and is legally binding upon the parties. (Article 49)

(7) The mediation needs to be closed in three (3) months by three (3) hearingd, provided that such time limitation does not apply where the medication combines with other claims, is agreed to be continued or is considered complicated or with other special concerns. (Article 50)

(8) Where the labor court hears a labor case involving intellectual property issues under Article 4 of the LIR, if the holders of the documents or objects have justified reasons to request non-disclosure of the documents or objects in public hearings, then the court is obligated not to disclose, unless there is a need for the court to require related parties to address their opinion. (Article 60)

(9) If the court makes an order in accordance with Article 39 of the LIA, that the employer shall make compensation if he/she fails to perform or cease certain action within a certain period, then the employee can only apply for compulsory execution of performance or cease of action during the period.  On the other hand, after lapse of the period, the employee can only apply for compulsory execution of compensation. (Article 65)

2. Enforcement Rules of Labor Incident Act 

(1) For unclosed labor related litigations which are initiated before the LIA takes effect, the jurisdiction shall be decided based on the law when it was initiated or the LIA; the court fees shall be decided by the law when the litigation is initiated, filed or appealed; the procedure shall be made in accordance with the LIA, subject to pre-requisite requirement of mediation.

(2) For unclosed labor related litigations which are pending at the IPC before the LIA takes effect, they shall be processed with priority to apply the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act and Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Rule according to Paragraph 4 of Article 4 of the LIR. (Article 3)

(3) The labor mediations that have been filed or deemed filed or the labor disputes with mediation process under the TCCP before the enforcement of the LIA shall still be conducted in accordance with the mediation procedures under the TCCP. (Articles 5 and 6)

Alex Li / Echo Yeh