On January 27, 2022, the Ministry of Labor announced a draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (“Draft Amendment”). We summarize below:
1.In response to the Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 807, the Draft Amendment removes the restriction for woman to work on night shifts. (Subparagraph 3, Paragraph 1 of Article 30-1)
2.The Draft Amendment provides that the employer shall not have the female employee with pregnancy or breastfeeding work at night, unless the breastfeeding female employee is willing to work at night, falls within the period between 6 months to 2 years after giving birth, and has been evaluated/recommended by the specialist that there is no need to restrict such female employee from working at night. (Article 49)
3.The employer requesting the employee work at night shall be subject to the regulations related to occupational safety and health, and provide transportation, transportation fee or dormitory for assistance if there is no public transportation system available. The employer shall notify the union or representative of employees the above-mentioned assistance matters (or any change thereto) in advance, and the employee may negotiate with the employer or submit the same to the labor-management committee for discussion. If the employer is in violation of the notification obligation or refuses to negotiate or discuss, he/she/it may be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$1,000,000 (approximately US$667 to US$33,334). The notification obligation does not apply to those companies which are approved and announced by the central competent authority that night work matters may be separately agreed upon by the employer and the employees. (Article 52-1; Articles 84-1, 77 and 79)
4.The female employee may request breastfeeding until the child reaches 2 years old, and may feed for unlimited times within 60 minutes per day. Those who extend working hours for more than 1 hour may also request for 30 minutes breastfeeding time. (Article 52)
David Tsai/Lily Huang
