Newsletter
AMENDMENTS TO THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT ACT
To reinforce three basic labor rights, i.e., the freedom of association, the right to collective bargain, and the right to strike, the Council of Labor Affairs proposed amendments to the La-bor Union Act, the Collective Agreement Act and the Labor Dispute Resolution Act to the Legislative Yuan.
On December 14, 2007, the Legislative Yuan adopted the proposed amendments to the Col-lective Agreement Act. The Executive Yuan is to decide the date on which the amended Act will take effect and may postpone its effective date until the proposed amendments to the Labor Union Act and the Labor Dispute Resolution Act are also adopted because some provisions under the amended Act are interrelated with the pro-posed amendments to the Labor Union Act and the Labor Dispute Resolution Act.
The amendments to the Collective Agreement Act are summarized below:
．To be in line with the proposed amendments to the Labor Union Act, a party to a collective agreement should be a legally formed labor union. Group(s) of employees, irrespective of its size, may not be a party to a collective agreement except through a legally formed labor union.
．Both employers and employees have an obli-gation to negotiate a collective agreement except where there are just causes not to do so. Non-compliance with this obligation as found pursuant to the proposed amendments to the Labor Dispute Resolution Act will trigger an administrative fine and a rectification order. If the violator does not correct its failure within the specified time limit, consecutive fines and rectification orders will be imposed until the failure is corrected.
．The relevant parties must follow certain pro-cedure for the appointment of representatives to negotiate a collective agreement and for the execution of such agreement.
．The labor union entering into a collective agreement should deliver the collective agreement to the competent authority for its record. If a party to the collective agreement is a government agency, a public school or a public enterprise, it must obtain prior approval from a competent authority before entering into such agreement.
．Both parties to the collective agreement should make the agreement public after its delivery to the competent authority, and should further provide a copy for review by any concerned parties.
．Certain terms and conditions may be incor-porated into a collective agreement, such as (1) salary, work hours and other employment benefits; (2) outplacement services; mediation and arbitration of labor disputes; (3) negotia-tion procedures for a collective agreement; (4) union operations; (5) employee participation in company operations; (6) procedures for handling issues regarding health, safety and complaints; and (7) other mutually agreed terms and conditions.
．A collective agreement is only binding on the employees who are members of the contract-ing union. To prevent the employer from of-fering better employment conditions to non-union members to entice union members to withdraw from the union, the collective agreement may include a provision prohibit-ing the employer from adjusting the non-union members' employment conditions without just causes.
．If a party to a collective agreement consists of multiple unions/employers, each of these multiple unions/employers may not enter into any other agreement that are in conflict with the collective agreement.
．The Civil Code should govern in the event of a breach of a collective agreement that is not related to employment conditions unless oth-erwise stipulated in the collective agreement.
．The contracting union may bring a lawsuit on behalf of its members on any matters arising out of a collective agreement. If a member is sued for a matter related to the collective agreement, the union may intervene in the lawsuit.
．If a party to a collective agreement experi-ences financial difficulties after the signing of the agreement, which may frustrate the pur-pose of the agreement, such party may request amendment to or termination of the agree-ment.