Taiwan weekly legal update: Labor inspection launch; China national treatment

Taiwan weekly legal update: Labor inspection launch; China national treatment

New labor reforms launched this week.

The new labor reforms of “Labor Standards Act” launched this Thursday. As the Ministry of Labor described there would be no conditioning period for these reforms, business entities much apply to the regulations immediately and the labor inspection is expected to launch later this month.

The Ministry reaffirmed the principles of these new labor reforms: Normal Working Hours (8 hr. /day, 40 hr. /week), “Two-days rest per week”, the total amount of OT hours (46 hr. /month, 138 hr. / 3 months), and payment for OT (hourly charge) remain the same. The rest period between shifts remains 11 hours by principle, but only in the exceptional situations and through collective bargaining, can this rest period be changed into “no less than 8 hours”

The Ministry also released the Enforcement Rules for the Act and the several supplement interpretations of the shifts arrangements and the list of designated industries for leave arrangements.

The industries which have been designated by the Ministry for capable of adopting arrangements for shifts and leaves in exceptional cases, the process of reporting to the authority and bargaining with the union would still be necessary before they could adopt the arrangements. Industries who wish to adopt arrangements could use the online reporting system.

Moreover, the Ministry new added several industries for capable of adopting flexible working hours on the list (§30(3)): Wedding photographer, Metro transportation, Track diver. Special type of worker (§84-1): Tour guide, Undertaker of burial.

Labor inspection

The Ministry said that due to the heavy workload of the coming spring break, labor inspection is expected to launch at the end of this month and will focus on the industry of transportation. For example, the authority has emphasized on adopting “double-diver” for high way buses. And the company should keep the divers’ working records in detail. The following are the labor inspection preview from the Ministry:

1. Industries related to public security: (transportation, medical service, day-care center, securities…)
2. Companies under labor claiming.
3. Industries adopting exceptional situations arrangements: (government controlled enterprise, energy supply, oil industries, tour travel…)
4. Companies with violation records, heavy workload or excessive OT records.

https://www.ey.gov.tw/UnitRSS_Content.aspx?n=8092BD84714005C0&s=DA72563C748BC79B

PRC released several national treatments for Taiwan citizen.

The Taiwan Affair Office of PRC has released several national treatments for Taiwan citizen this week. There are 31 clauses which provide companies of Taiwan to enjoy the same condition as PRC companies, also allowing Taiwanese companies to join in the “Made In China 2025” policy which provides several tax incentives, national developing projects, infrastructure projects and government procurement. The treatments also provided Taiwanese companies to have the right to apply land use or subsidiary for transferring company to the north-west of China. Financial policies are also provided.

Furthermore, China has open 134 national exams to Taiwanese citizens, whoever qualified is allowed to practice in PRC. Taiwanese citizens are also allowed to join in the “Thousands”, “Millions” funding projects of cultural development and several professional unions. The movie, publication industries are also on the list.

 

The Council has described that the clauses in “Several Treatments” has three major aspects:

1. Taiwan companies jointly with PRC companies enjoy the incentive treatments in the policy of “Made In China 2025”.

2. The “Several Treatments” is designated to Taiwan’s unique status, for example, special industries cooperation zones are focused on Taiwanese company to transfer the bases to the north-west of PRC. Mechanisms for the Taiwanese company to join the project of “One belt One road”. Taiwanese movie and entertainment industries are opened to the market.

3. The “Several Treatments” covers a major aspect of Taiwanese citizens, including industries, taxation, land use, employ, education, culture, medical and movie… the Council said further treatment is expected to release in the future.

 

References:
http://www.gwytb.gov.cn/wyly/201802/t20180228_11928139.htm
http://www.gwytb.gov.cn/wyly/201802/t20180228_11928563.htm

Tax inspection on Tabaco and alcohol launch in April.

The Taxation Bureau announced that random tax inspections are going to launch in April. This time will focus on Tabaco and Alcohol. Companies should review themselves on tax reports and tax paying. If there is any remaining duty that fails to list on the return, should recover the tax by the end of March.

Anti-evasion is the goal of this year’s inspection, companies without business registration or product registration; wholesaler and agency with unusual transactions; uneven records among the materials and the return; and unusual pricing. The following are notices from the Bureau:

1. Companies without business or product registration.

2. Uneven records of products produced and tax return.

3. False labeling of the ingredients.

4. Taste wine or internal sales without declare.

5. Wine as gifts without declaring.


 

Feel free to contact taipei@asiallians.com for more information.