Labor Shortage, Overtime, and Esports: Taiwan Uniquely

Premier Lai Revealed Plans to Resolve Labor Shortage

• Taiwan’s Premier William Lai revealed on Friday a plan to tackle the problem of labor shortage in Taiwan. Lai pointed out that the major cause of Taiwan’s labor shortage were the lack of labor supply, undesirable working conditions, and the lack of necessary skills.
• Lai urged businesses to accelerate their investment in Taiwan to boost the economy, and encouraged international companies and large corporations to raise their minimum wages.
• Lastly, Lai wanted corporations to actively participate in talent cultivation initiatives launched by the government. The Executive Yuan plans to roll out a series of initiatives to resolve the issue of labor shortage in the next few years.

Executive Yuan Proposed Final Amendments to Labor Law

• Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, led by Premier Lai, also proposed the final version of the partial amendments to the labor law, allowing employers to freely shift employees’ overtime hours over three months, and increases employees’ monthly overtime hours to 54 hours.
• Additionally, Lai loosened the current rule of one mandatory day off plus one flexible rest day per week, which prevents employers from requiring employees to work six days in a row. The proposed amendments would give employers the flexibility to arrange the mandatory day off after a seven day cycle.
• These amendments could potentially allow for some employees to work 12 days in a row, while increasing the monthly overtime hours to 54. Other minor amendments include letting employers shorten the intervals between shifts, calculating overtime pay based actual overtime hours (as opposed to the current tiered system), and rolling over previous year’s annual leaves to the following year.

Legislature Makes eSports an Official Sport Category

• Taiwan’s legislature passed the new legislation for the development of sports industry last week, officially making eSports one of the sport categories and allowing the federation to organize national team selection, training and other relevant benefits.
• KMT legislator Wu Chih-yang argues that this move allows eSports to get rid of the negative perception from the general public, while boosting the growth of the whole industry. Other legislators believe that the passage of this new legislation can also help Taiwan prepare for regional and international competitions in the future.

(Feature photo by ScoutT7, CC BY-SA 4.0)