Amendments that would require companies to share profits with their employees were stalled again in the legislature. Taiwan is trying to deal with its stagnant wages by passing laws that would penalize public companies that do not share its profits with employees.
The amendments were put on the legislature’s agenda for Tuesday, but the legislature’s New Alliance said there needed to be more negotiations before the amendments were discussed.
The amendments would see changes in four labor laws including the Labor Standards Act, the Company Act, the Factory Act and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act. The amendments would require that companies give a certain proportion of their profits to employees and that this be distributed annually. Companies could be fined up to NT$5 million (about US$161,000) if they failed to comply.
Major industry groups are against the proposal and say it would let the government interfere with their business operations and make Taiwan less competitive.
Legislature president Wang Jin-pyng is going to hold related negotiations between the opposition and ruling lawmakers on Thursday. If they are able to come to a consensus, the amendments will be put on the legislative agenda on Friday.
If the amendments are passed, it would affect Taiwan’s 1,700 publicly traded companies and about a third of Taiwan’s workforce.