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1.The Ministry of Labor (the “Ministry”) has established these guidelines to provide legal aid for the mediation of labor disputes, to assist workers in fighting for their labor rights and subsidize municipal and county (city) governments, the Science Park Bureau of National Science and Technology Council, and the Export Processing Zone Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (“administrative agencies”).

2.Recipients of subsidization:
(1)Municipal Governments of Special Municipalities.
(2)County (City) Governments.
(3)Science Park Bureau of National Science and Technology Council.
(4)Export Processing Zone Administration, MOEA.

3.Workers or their legal representatives, or the survivors of workers involved in occupational accidents (“labor parties”), who apply for labor dispute mediation before filing a lawsuit, and fall under one of the following situations, are eligible for legal aid provided by administrative agencies:
(1)Disputes arising between workers and employers regarding occupational accidents, where the request for mediation is based on the employer's failure to provide compensation or indemnification for the occupational accident in accordance with legal regulations, group agreements, or labor contracts, and the requested amount exceeds NT$10,000.
(2)Disputes between workers and employers over unpaid wages, severance pay, or retirement pensions, where the requested amount exceeds NT$10,000.
(3)Disputes arising from the termination of labor contracts between workers and employers, where the request for mediation seeks reinstatement of the employment relationship.
(4)Disputes arising from job transfers between workers and employers, where the request for mediation claims the invalidity of the transfer or seeks reinstatement to the original position.
(5)When administrative agencies determine that the mediation matters related to labor disputes are also connected to occupational accident events and are complex, and it is necessary to provide legal aid.
Workers who are recognized by administrative agencies as indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, or new residents, and have been determined to require legal aid, are not subject to the limitations on scope and amount specified in the preceding paragraph.
“New residents” referred to in the preceding paragraph includes the following individuals:
(1)Foreign nationals, residents of Mainland China, Hong Kong residents, or Macau residents who are married to an ROC national with household registration within the territory of the Republic of China and have been granted permission to reside and work in Taiwan in accordance with the law.
(2)Foreign nationals, residents of Mainland China, Hong Kong residents, or Macau residents as mentioned in the preceding subparagraph, who are divorced from or lost their spouse due to death and are eligible to continue residing and working in Taiwan in accordance with legal regulations.

4. The term "legal aid" in these Directions refers to administrative agencies assigning lawyer, who is then appointed by the employee, to accompany the employee to participate the mediation meeting for the labor-management dispute.
The Ministry should maintain a list of legal aid lawyers for the administrative agencies to make assignments as referred to in the preceding paragraph. If an administrative agency prepares its own list of legal aid lawyers, it should submit the list of legal aid lawyers for the following year to the Ministry before the end of December each year.

5. When applying for subsidies, administrative agencies should follow the following rules.
(1) The administrative agency shall take the initiative to check whether the employees applying for mediation of labor- management dispute have the willingness to accept legal aid and, if so, ask them to sign the letter of appointment of lawyer (Annex 1) and an affidavit (Annex 2).
(2) If the employee in the labor dispute has appointed his/her own lawyer or is represented by a lawyer appointed by the Legal Aid Foundation before the mediation of labor-management dispute is convened, no subsidization shall be granted.
(3) Lawyers assigned by administrative agencies to provide legal aid should be from the list of legal aid lawyers prepared by the Ministry. If no assignment can be made from the aforementioned list, it may be made from the list previously submitted to the Ministry.

6. The subsidization to administrative agencies for the remuneration paid to lawyers are as follows.
(1) The rate for lawyer to be appointed to accompany the employee to participate in the mediation meeting of labor-management dispute is NT$3,000 per session.
(2) For labor-management disputes based on the same cause and fact, only one session can be subsidized. However, if the administrative agency determines that the subject matter is complex and reconvening a mediation meeting of labor- management dispute will help the mediation achieve success, a maximum of three sessions can be subsidized.
(3) After the start of the mediation meeting of labor-management dispute, the administrative agency shall still pay the lawyer's fee if the employee in the labor dispute is accompanied by another lawyer he/she appointed, or if the mediation is unable to proceed due to non-attendance of the employee in the labor dispute, or if there are other circumstances not attributable to the performance of duties by the assigned lawyer presented.
If an employee in the labor dispute has any of the situations described in the preceding paragraph 3 and mediation is therefore not successfully concluded or is unable to proceed, the same case will not be subsidized in the future.

7. A lawyer assigned by an administrative agency may not do any of the followings.
(1) Collect remuneration or fees from employee in the labor dispute using any reason.
(2) Acting as an advocate for an employee in the labor dispute, unless he/she is assigned by the Legal Aid Foundation as a legal aid lawyer for of the employee in the labor dispute.

8.The Ministry shall determine and allocate the subsidies to administrative agencies based on the following criteria by the end of January each fiscal year. However, the annual allocation amount may be adjusted at any time according to the execution status of the administrative agencies:
(1)The number of cases of labor-management dispute mediation from January to October of the previous year involving contract disputes, wage payments, severance pay, retirement pension, and occupational accident compensation disputes.
(2)The execution status of using this subsidy in the previous year.

9. The administrative agencies shall apply for the disbursement of full amount for subsidization under NT$150,000 by letter to the Ministry within one month of the Ministry's approval of the subsidization amount. For the subsidization amount exceeding NT$150,000, the implementation status should be specified and a letter should be sent to the Ministry before the end of August of the current year to apply for disbursement of the remaining amount.
When applying for disbursement of subsidization, administrative agencies should submit the following documents.
(1) Copies of approved official documents of the Ministry.
(2) Receipts.
(3) Account information of the administrative agencies.

10. Administrative agencies should submit the following documents to the Ministry by November 15 of each year to proceed with the appropriation summary report from November of the previous year through October of the current year.
(1) A summary of cases (Annex 3).
(2) Appropriation Usage Report (Annex 4).

11. Grants under these Directions shall be deposited in a special account designated for the Employment Security Fund grant program. The deposit should have interest and be dedicated funds for exclusive use.
The administrative agencies are not allowed to set-off or misappropriate interest earned on deposits in the dedicated account and return the remaining balance and interest in the special account to the Ministry when proceeding with write-off for the current year.

12. The administrative agencies are not eligible for subsidization in the current year if any of the following conditions apply.
(1) The appropriation summary report for the current year is overdue.
(2) Failure to preserve the original records in accordance with the Article 25 of Regulations for the Mediation of Labor-Management Disputes or lost them not because of force majeure.
(3) Mediation cases applied for legal aid are factually incorrect.
(4) Other violations of mediation of labor-management dispute-related laws and regulations.
Under the circumstances described in the Subparagraph 3 of the preceding paragraph, in addition to the recovery of the subsidized funds, the Ministry will handle in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations.
For cases submitted by the administrative agencies for subsidization that do not meet the requirement set forth in Paragraph 3, the cases will not be subsidized.

13.Administrative agencies receiving subsidies shall not evade, obstruct, or refuse the Ministry's inspection of relevant information and unscheduled visits.

14.Administrative agencies shall compile and bind the records of labor-management dispute mediation cases, appointment letters, affidavits, and other relevant documents in chronological order according to the mediation meeting time. The storage and disposal of these documents shall be carried out in accordance with the Archives Act and relevant regulations.

15. The funds for these Directions shall be disbursed from the budget of the current year. The disbursement or discontinuation of subsidization may be adjusted based on the amount of appropriation. If the annual budget is eliminated or if there are non-attributable factors that make the budget insufficient to cover the subsidization of these Directions, the Ministry may discontinue the subsidization or do not subsidize from the beginning.