History

1.In order to assist workers in fighting for their labor rights, and to subsidize the municipal and county (city) governments, the Science Park Administration of MOST, and the Export Processing Zone Administration of MOEA (hereinafter referred to as "administrative agencies") to provide legal aid for the mediation of labor-management disputes, the Ministry of Labor (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) has hereby established these Directions.

2. Receivers of subsidization:
(1) Municipal governments.
(2) County (city) governments.
(3) Science Park Administration of MOST.
(4) Export Processing Zone Administration of MOEA.

3. If a worker, his/her legal representatives, or the survivors of a worker of occupational accidents (hereinafter referred to as the "employee in the labor dispute") applies for mediation of labor-management dispute before filing a lawsuit and one of the following situations occurs, the legal aid provided by administrative agencies shall be subsidized:
(1)In a dispute between a worker and his/her employer over an occupational accident, when the request for mediation is based on the employer's failure to provide compensation or indemnification for the occupational accident in accordance with the provisions of the law, group agreement, or labor contract, and the requested amount exceeds NT$10,000.
(2)When a worker has a dispute with his/her employer over unpaid severance or pension payments and the amount of requested amount exceeds $10,000.
(3)When a worker and his/her employer have a labor-management dispute over the termination of a labor contract, and the request for mediation is for reinstatement of the employment relationship.
(4)Labor-management dispute mediation matters determined by the administrative agencies to be occupational accidents-related and complicated to the point that warrants legal aid.

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 approve the allocation of subsidization to administrative agencies based on the followings before the end of January each year. However, the amount of the annual subsidization may be adjusted from time to time according to the implementation status of the administrative agencies:
(1)Number of cases in which the subject matter of the mediation of labor-management dispute were contract, severance pay, labor pension, and compensation for occupational accidents from January to October of the previous year.
(2)Status of use of subsidization 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 subsidization may not circumvent, obstruct, or deny the Ministry to check the relevant information.

14. The funds for the subsidies of these Directions will be handled using the in-situ check method. The original vouchers shall be handled by administrative agencies in accordance with “Accounting Act” and “Instructions for Custody, Transfer and Destruction of Government Accounting Documents”.
The term "original certificate" in the preceding subparagraph refers to the receipt of remuneration and of a lawyer assigned by the administrative agencies to attend the mediation meeting.

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.