Published in 2016

A category of policy criticism and recommendations

Facing the interweaving of old and new problems, how to propose a new labor policy that is more in line with the current social needs on the important foundation laid in the past 15 years has become an important mission for the next stage of development. Taiwan Labor Front think: The laboratory believes that despite the efforts of the labor team to rebuild the fragile labor protection system, they have accumulated considerable results. However, if the overall social thinking remains the same, then workers can only despise the increasingly unjust political and economic structure. The despair of despair and poverty, in the end, labor policy can also be a tool to make up for it. Therefore, we have an obligation to understand the future and propose a broader perspective to deal with the future. In the next fifteen years, let "Dignity Labor" become a reality and let labor justice be realized.

Undoubtedly, in postponing long hours of work, low wages create national competitiveness and wake up in the big dream of tax reduction, flexibility and liberalization to create economic growth, Taiwanese society can get rid of the sweating economy. The blueprint for labor policy in the direction of “Fair Economy” contains a number of specific directions, as follows:

First, the new idea of building a "fair economy" will make the distribution of economic growth results more fair and equitable, and will no longer be monopolized by a few people. In the past few decades, we have allowed unconditional experiments by neoliberalism to prove that the tax-reduction economy is just a cross-party and cross-century scam. Not only does it not bring happiness, but it is also the paralysis of the country's finances, the gap between rich and poor had the expansion, the spread of job poverty, and the bitter consequences of overworked labor. The rich continue to make money through improper economic policies. The poorer the poor, the poorer and the more unfair, the severe erosion of the unity of Taiwanese society. Therefore, tax reform is imperative. Resources will be more fair through a stricter income redistribution mechanism. Economic policies should also institutionalize the democratic participation mechanism that is reasonably distributed, and increase the overall situation of Taiwan through tax increases and salary increases to improve quality of live and living standard.

The second is to comprehensively review the current labor policy and legal framework to fill existing policy deficiencies. As mentioned above, the reconstruction of the labor legal system in the past 15 years has achieved results and completed, but it is the collective labor law of labor unity. The system, or the protection of individual labor laws that directly protect labor rights, has many defects and deficiencies that should be immediately revised and corrected, such as the scope of application of Labor Standards Act, basic labor conditions, prohibition of discrimination and employment, and atypical employment. Foreign labor rights are indeed guaranteed. While workers face new risks in the workplace, various social protection systems can prevent workers and their families from getting into trouble. Therefore, comprehensive insurance for social insurance, including labor insurance, employment insurance and separate legislation for occupational disaster insurance, will also be at a stage where the government should give priority to work.

Finally, it is the direct beginning of rebuilding broken social welfare. In addition to labor policies and regulations, it is also necessary to rebuild the social welfare system through tax reform. In addition to a comprehensive refurbishment of the annuity system, the provision of childcare, public services such as long-term care service and public housing will prevent workers from being exploited twice in an over-commercial market to effectively reduce the pressure on working life. In particular, the problems brought about by the dramatic changes in Taiwan's demographic structure will seriously affect social, economic and labor policies, and are also serious challenges that the government must face in the future.