Introduction of Overwork Issues in Taiwan

Huang Yi-Ling

MAR 20 2020

中文    한국어    日本語

The issue of overwork is a particularly prominent cultural phenomenon in East Asian countries. Around the world, only Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan include overwork-related cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs) into the scope of occupational disease compensation.

In recent years, the cases of overwork-related disorders have been emerging in Taiwan. According to the statistics from Bureau of Labor Insurance, between 2011 to 2019, a total of 679 workers were recognized as work-related CCVDs, including 236 cases of death and 173 permanent disability.

Overwork has become an important occupational hazard. Every eight days, there will be 1 worker suffered from serious casualty due to overwork. However, the figure was merely a tip of the iceberg, as there were many hidden cases that were not approved for occupational disease recognition due to difficulties of providing working time proof or not insured in accordance with the law.

Recognition guidelines for CCVDs

Looking back at the historical background of the identification of overworked diseases in Taiwan, as early as 1991, the first version of the guidelines for recognizing work-related cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases was announced. However, CCVDs was not on the official list of occupational diseases, so suspected cases were decided for compensation case by case. Besides, the criteria for recognition was very strict. Only the onset of CCVDs at the workplace could be recognized as work‐related, and only the workload during the period right before the CCVDs event was considered. As a result, the identification of the first case was not passed until 2006.

Since then, the guidelines were amended several times. The biggest changes were made in 2010 because of a Karoshi case. His name is Hsu Shao-pin (徐紹斌), who worked at Nanya Technology Company. He was found dead in an early morning when his father went to check him in his room after he did not leave the room to work. He was only 29. He regularly worked over 12 hours a day and sometimes 16 to 19 hours. His overtime hours were 111.5 hours during the month prior to his sudden death. His family believed he died of overwork and applied for labor insurance compensation. However, he was found dead in his own house not in his office. His company also denied that he regularly work overtime before his death. At last, his family’s application for compensation was denied.

Also, since 2009, only seven cases of suicide were recognized as work-related by Taiwanese government. The first case happened in 2012. The victim’s name is Chang Pei-fong (張倍逢). Chang was in charge of occupational safety at Formosa Plastic Group in Yunlin County. He was required to monitor the occupational safety of a construction site in the plant and the contractor responsible for the project was not following the safety regulations. Chang tried to report the case to his supervisors but he was told to turn a blind eye toward the issue so that the construction project could complete on schedule. Under huge pressure, Chang, on Oct., 2011, jumped to his death from a 25-meter-high platform, just one week before his scheduled wedding. He was 29. Before his death, he sent a text massage saying that "I couldn't live up to the government, the company or safety requirements, and that I felt terribly sorry for the company and wanted to take responsibility by killing myself."

Taiwan’s labor authorities later determined him as the nation’s first case of work-related suicide. 

As many cases keep happening, OSH Link has published a book in 2015. The title of the book is “Taiwan, an island of overwork,” in which we recorded the stories of many Taiwanese who died of overwork and discuss the overwork issue and why it happens. After its publication, we are glad to see that Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor was asked to report to lawmakers regarding overwork, raising more concern on the issue. Later that year, lawmakers amended related laws to reduce total maximum number of work hours to 40 hours per week from 84 hours every two weeks.

What we do are just some tiny steps to make changes to the overwork issues in Taiwan. We will continue to fight for all workers to protect their safety and labor rights.