Business responsible person may be restricted from going abroad in massive layoff cases

The Council of Labor Affairs has drafted the “Regulations concerning Restricting Business Responsible Persons from Going Abroad under the Massive Layoff Protection Law”.  In the future, when a company lays off a massive number of workers whose wages, retirement pay or severance pay are not paid, the CLA will be able to directly, and timely, restrict the company’s president or actual responsible person from leaving this country, instead of dallying away the best timing for the report filed by local government labor departments to go through tiers of organizations before reaching the CLA. 

 

To reduce the impact caused on workers by a sudden closure of factory, the Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of the Massive Layoff Protection Law, which has been implemented as scheduled on May 7.  From then on, a company must notify the competent authority and labor union or representative of workers of the layoff plan 60 days prior to the massive layoff occurs, so as to prevent disputes from arising between the capital and the worker over the unwarned layoff.

 

Under the said Law, a massive layoff occurs when:

n         A company with fewer than 30 employees has laid off over 10 of its employees within 60 days;

n         A company with more than 200 employees dismissed more than one-third of its employees within 60 days or more than 50 employees in a single day;

n         A company with more than 30 but fewer than 200 employees laid off more than one-third of its employees within 60 days or more than 20 employees in one day; or

n         A company with more than 500 employees laid off more than one-fifth of its employees within a 60-day period. 

The number of employees referred to is exclusive of contracted employees.

 

   In the event of a massive layoff where a company owes wages, severance pay or retirement pay to laid-off employees, the CLA can prohibit the company’s president or actual responsible person from leaving this company if: 

n         A company with more than 10 but fewer than 30 employees owes a total of NT$3,000,000 or above to laid-off employees;

n         A company with fewer than 100 employees owes a total of NT$5,000,000 or above to laid-off employees; or

n         A company with more than 100 but fewer than 200 employees owes a total of NT$20,000,000 or above to laid-off employees

   

Translated by Jem Chung