The term employee used in Taiwan law refers to a worker who is in an employment relationship with the employer. The employment terms are subject to the regulations of the Labor Standards Act ("LSA") and other applicable employment-related laws and regulations. An employee is considered full-time or part-time depending on the working hours (e.g. the working hours per week is 40 hours and those employees working less than 40 days a week are considered by the employers as part-time employees (assuming the working hours adopted by the employers are the same as the law permits)). Some high-ranking officers, when meeting certain qualifications, are under a mandate relationship with the entity engaging their services. Their terms of work are not subject to the LSA and employment-related laws and regulations.

All the employment terms should be of an indefinite term, subject to termination where there is a permitted termination ground under LSA. An employer can enter into a fixed-term contract with the employee when only the work falls into the categories and nature provided under the LSA and its Enforcement Rules or when the employee is 65 years old or above. In addition, the length of the fixed-term contract should be short. If the term is going to exceed 1 year, prior approval from the labor authority is required. Another exception where a fixed-term contract is permitted is when the employee is a foreigner who requires a work permit to be able to legally reside and work in Taiwan. In that case, the employer needs to apply for a work permit for the individual. As the term of the work permit is 3 years (can be renewed), the employer is allowed to enter into a fixed-term contract not exceeding 3 years with the foreign employee.

The terms of an employment contract shall not fall below the minimum statutory standards and entitlements provided under the LSA and its Enforcement Rules. In addition, the terms shall not violate any mandatory and prohibitive requirements under other applicable laws and regulations.

Yes, part-time employees are afforded the same rights as full-time employees, except that certain benefits may be pro-rated based on their working hours per week.

The employee cannot assign the employment contract to another person (i.e. he cannot request another person to enjoy his rights and perform his obligations under the employment contract). The employer cannot assign the employment contract to another person without obtaining the consent of the employee. In the latter case, the new entity typically will sign a new employment contract with the employee and will agree to recognize the employee's service years at the current employer for the purpose of calculating the employee's employment-related benefits and entitlements.

That will depend on how the business of the current employer is transferred. For instance, if the employer transfers part of its business to another entity as regulated under the Merger & Acquisition Act, the transferee may decide which employee it would like to retain. For those employees the transferee would like to retain, it shall provide the employee with an offer letter and the draft employment terms/agreement within 30 days prior to the closing date of the transaction and the employee is given 10 days to respond. If the employee fails to respond, he is considered accepting the offer. For those employees, the transferee does not intend to retain or those employees who are unwilling to work for the transferee after receiving the offer, if the current employer does not have any other adequate position for them, the employer shall terminate their employment with severance pay not lower than the amount required under the law. Unless the employer has signed an agreement with the employee or a collective agreement with the union (if the employees in that company have formed a labor union pursuant to applicable law) which requires the employer should consult with them for any proposed business transfer or merger, the employee does not have a legal right to protest against the proposed transaction (though under local practice, it is not uncommon the employees will protest against the proposed transaction in the event they have concern over the operation of the transferred business by the transferee).

No, Taiwan does not have statutory rights for employees on the change of control of an employer. If the shareholder(s) of the employer has changed and as a result, the employer is now controlled by a different person/entity, under the law, the employer itself as a company remains the same. The employees cannot request the employer to terminate them as a result of the change of control. Neither can the employer (now controlled by a different person/entity) terminate the employees for such a change of control.

Unless the change of terms is to comply with the law (e.g. the LSA is amended and relevant benefit needs to be adjusted) or the change provides more favorable or generous treatment/benefit to the employees, the employer cannot unilaterally change the terms of the employment contract.

No, Taiwan is not an employment-at-will jurisdiction. As mentioned, an employment contract in principle should be of indefinite term. The employer can terminate an employee when only a permitted termination ground (e.g. incompetent or serious misconduct) under the LSA is available.

The employee can apply for labor dispute mediation with the local labor authority. If mediation fails, the employer and the employee may agree to submit their dispute to the labor authority for arbitration (rarely seen as most of the time the employer is unwilling to participate in the arbitration). In most cases, the employee will need to litigate against the employer in court proceedings. The employee who feels he/she has been illegally terminated may claim for severance, reinstatement or other damage.

Yes, the LSA provides that in the event an employee reports the violation of law by the employer, the employer cannot terminate him/her, transfer him/her to another position, reduce his salary or benefits which are provided to him/her under the law, the employment contract or past practice of the employer or take any adversary measure against the employee. If the employer has done any one of those, the action will be null and void. In addition, the employer may be subject to fines imposed by the labor authority pursuant to the LSA.

Taiwan does not have laws promulgated to regulate the privacy of employees in the workplace. The right of privacy available to each person is provided under the Civil Code. If a person has intentionally infringed on another person's privacy, the victim may claim against the wrongdoer for damage. In addition, depending on the facts surrounding the infringement (e.g. the manager has secretly recorded the activities of the employees at the place where the employees reasonably expect to have privacy), the victim may be able to bring a criminal complaint against the wrongdoer. Furthermore, Taiwan has a Personal Data Protection Act to regulate the collection, processing, use and transfer of an individual's personal data by the government and entities in the private sector. Part of the purpose and goal is to protect an individual's privacy (though not designed to address employees' right to privacy at the workplace).

Yes, under the LSA, Employment Service Act and other applicable laws, an employer is not allowed to discriminate against employees based on various factors set forth under the law (e.g. gender, marital status, sexual orientation, political association, religion and union membership, etc.).

An employee is entitled to paid annual leave (e.g. 3 days after working for 6 months, 7 days after working for 12 months). An employee is also entitled to various leaves provided under applicable laws (e.g. sick leave, personal leave, funeral leave, family care leave, etc.). An employee who has worked for the employee for 6 months and has a child less than 3 years old may apply to take unpaid parental leave until the child reaches the age of 3 and the period of such leave cannot exceed 2 years. To our knowledge, currently, there is no plan that the regulations on the employee's leave benefits will be further changed.

The employer can enter into an agreement with the employee under which the employee is required to abide by post-termination non-compete obligations. The arrangement and terms of the agreements need to meet the requirements set forth under the LSA to be legal and enforceable. For instance, the employer has legitimate business interests that require protection; the position or job taken by the relevant employee enables him/her to have access to or be able to use the employer’s trade secrets; the duration of the non-compete clause cannot exceed the life cycle of the trade secret or technology the employer would like to protect and shall not be longer than 2 years; the restrictive geographical area shall limit to the areas where the employer has actual operations and business activities; the restrictive activities shall be clearly defined and shall be identical or similar to the assigned duties of the employee when he works for the employer; and the employer should provide additional compensation (monthly payment should not be lower than 50% of the employee's 6-month average wage prior to termination of employment), etc. 

It is generally believed that an employee has an obligation not to compete during his employment and the salary and benefits provided by the employer should serve as consideration. The employer cannot terminate the employee for his refusal to sign a restrictive covenant. However, if the employee acts and assists the employer's competitor in harming the employer's interest, that conduct may enable the employer to terminate his employment for a material violation of his employment contract. For the post-termination non-compete agreement, the employer cannot terminate the employee for his/her refusal to enter into such an agreement. If such an agreement is signed, the employer should provide a monthly payment or a one-time payment, not lower than 50% of the 6-month average wage of the employee, during the restrictive period. 

Yes. The employer is required to make monthly pension contributions for the employees. Taiwan has two pension systems, defined contribution and defined benefit programs. For employees employed on or after July 1, 2005, it is mandatory to apply a defined contribution pension program (new pension program) to them. The new pension system is of portable personal pension account design. Each month, the employer should contribute at least 6% of the employee's monthly salary to his/her pension account administered by the government. If an employee is a foreigner and is not eligible to participate in the new pension program (e.g. is not married to a Taiwanese citizen), the employer needs to make a pension contribution for him/her pursuant to the defined benefit program (old pension program). That program is for the employer to contribute 2% to 15% of the aggregate monthly salary of those employees under the old pension program to the corporate pension account of the company with the Bank of Taiwan.

Yes, the employer needs to enroll the employees under Employment Insurance, Labor Insurance, Occupational Hazard Insurance, and National Health Insurance. The premiums are paid by the employer, the employee, and the government. In addition, as mentioned, the employer needs to make monthly pension contributions and grant various leaves to the employees. 

Yes. Under the LSA, an employer shall not force an employee to retire unless any of the following situations has occurred:

1. Where the employee attains the age of 65.
2. Where the employee is unable to perform his duties due to disability.

 An employer can request the central competent authority to adjust the age prescribed above if the specific job entails risk, requires substantial physical strength or is otherwise of a special nature; provided, however, that the age shall not be reduced below 55.

No. If the employee continues to work at the same employer and is not retired yet at the age of 65, the employer still needs to provide all mandatory benefits. If the employee has retired from another company and has received payment under Labor Insurance at the time he retires, if the person now works for another company, the new employer is not required to enroll him/her under the Labor Insurance and the Employment Insurance. However, the employer still needs to enroll the employee under National Health Insurance and Occupational Hazards Insurance and make monthly pension contributions for the employee (6% of his monthly salary).

No, an employer cannot force the employee to be vaccinated. In addition, an employer cannot terminate an employee for his refusal to be vaccinated.

Yes. As the COVID-19 pandemic is well controlled in Taiwan, most companies are open to business as normal and most employees attend to work at the office on a daily basis. Unless an employee has a legitimate reason which requires him to work at home, the employer can request its employees to work at the office or return to work in the office as presumably, that is a requirement set in the employment contract.