Based on the intent of the Constitution to protect the people*s rights of existence and work, and to promote the workers’ livelihood, the Labor Standards Act was thereby enacted. For purposes of protecting workers’ rights and interests, strengthening the labor-management relationship and to promote social and economic development, the Labor Standards Act provides the minimum standards of working conditions in relation to the wages, working hours, time off, leave of absence, retirement and compensation for occupational accidents applicable to the industries listed in Article 3, Paragraph 1, of the Labor Standards Act. Furthermore, in order to implement thoroughly the intent of the law to protect the workers’ rights and interests, a supplement was added to Article 3, Paragraph 3, on December 27, 1996, to ensure that the law would be applied to all kinds of employee-employer relations, at least before the end of 1998, except for certain cases where the application is especially difficult.
Although the business entity should apply to the Labor Standards Act subject to the character of the business, but the styles of labor of various businesses are extremely different. To the workers engaged in supervisory jobs, supervision is their principal duty and to be deployed at a fixed place. The degree of tenseness of their bodies and spirits is normally lower than regular workers’. To the workers engaged in intermittent jobs, the way to proceed their work is normally that the waiting hours are longer than the working hours. To the business with those characters, although the business entity may separately enter into agreement with the workers in respect of the standards of working conditions, the conditions agreed to should in no event provide less than the minimum standards set out by the Labor Standards Act. According Article 84-1 of the Act, which was added to the Act on December 27, 1996, irrespective of whether the worker is engaged in supervisory, intermitted or other special types of jobs, such work should be approved and announced by the relevant central competent authority; and the written agreement as to the working conditions in respect of the working hours, etc., should be made between the employer and workers in accordance with that Article. It should not merely be mutually agreed upon by the employer and workers, but should also be reported to and approved by the relevant local competent authority. Furthermore, according to Article 50-2 of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act as amended on July 12, 1997, the description of the working conditions should include the position, item, responsibility or character, working hours, national holidays, regular days off, female workers’ night shift, etc. After the implementation of the Labor Standards Act, the provision relating to the overtime wage payment to the industries applicable to the Labor Standards Act should apply to Article 24 of the Labor Standards Act. Article 84-1 of the Act, relating to supervisory, intermittent or other special types of jobs, which should not be subject to the restriction of the above law in relation to working hours, national holidays and regular days off, was enacted as a supplement to the Act as aforesaid, and is not applicable to the matters incurred before the effective date of that Article. Furthermore, the calculation of working hours and rest is a matter of fact which shall be decided by the related ordinance or regulations subject to the character of various businesses is beyond the scope of this Interpretation.