Newsletter
PROGRESS OF LABOR INSUR-ANCE ACT AMENDMENTS
On 22 December 2003, the Sanitation, Envi-ronment and Social Welfare Committee of the Legislative Yuan reviewed draft amendments to the Labor Insurance Act. The committee ap-proved proposals to increase the period of injury and sickness benefit payments from one year to two years, and to bring forward the start of hos-pitalization benefit payments from the fourth day of hospitalization to the second. The committee also approved proposals to raise the status of workers' old-age insurance within the labor in-surance scheme from that of a subcategory of ordinary injury insurance, to that of a separate category on an equal footing with ordinary injury insurance and occupational injury insurance.
In the future, because foreign workers are not entitled to labor insurance old-age benefits, em-ployers will only need to pay the ordinary injury and occupational injury portions of labor insur-ance premiums on their behalf. This will reduce the burden on employers. However, the com-mittee was unable to reach agreement on issues such as whether, after the reform of the labor insurance old-age benefits system, workers will be allowed to take a single lump-sum payment, and how premiums should be calculated. Hence the committee did not complete its review of this portion of the draft amendments.