| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 勞工研究所 === 107 === In today’s globalized and labor flexible era, unemployment is an urgent problem that every country in the world needs to solve. However, under the influence of globalization, employment patterns are changing rapidly and unemployment risks are becoming more complex. These risks include involuntary unemployment, transitive unemployment, and partial unemployment. Unemployment creates different negative impacts on the individual, society, and the economy and is disadvantageous for future national development. To reduce the harm posed by unemployment, to ensure the working rights of the people, to promote public employment, and to eliminate the fears and dangers of unemployment, modern countries have established employment security systems. This system is composed of the employment service, employment training, and unemployment insurance. In recent years, governments have used a proactive labor market policy to solve problems. Taiwan has gradually established the Vocational Training Act,Employment Service Act, and the Employment Insurance Act and completed the building of an employment security system based on the constitutional spirit of guaranteeing people’s right to work and to promote employment among the people.
If we look carefully at these laws, they are mainly centered on involuntary resignees and include items such as unemployment pay, early employment reward subsidy, career training and living expense subsidies, and employment consultations. Unfortunately, although many people in Taiwan’s labor market look like they voluntarily resigned, the reality is that they became unemployed because of poor labor conditions, as a result of decreased work hours and payment from poor employer management, or transfer to the next job. In circumstances like these, workers are not protected by the employment security system, which produces more complicated problems such as long-term unemployment, atypical employment, or workers working under fear. This group of voluntary resigneesparticipated in employment insurance while they were employed, but cannot use the employment security system when they face unemployment risk or use the system to maintain their living or employability because they are not technically “involuntary resignees.”
In addition, one of the payment conditions for Taiwan’s Employment Insurance Act is that the insured must have one year or more of insured period. Obviously, first-time job seekers who have never been in the labor market cannot obtain unemployment payment qualification. According to a survey of the unemployed under 29 years of age, about 45% gave “first-time job-seeking” as the reason for unemployment. First-time job seekers are mostly young people that have graduated and are just entering the labor market to search for employment. However, some are unable to successfully enter the labor market but are also not covered by the employment security net. As a result, this group of first-time job-seeking youths faces tremendous social adjustment and economic difficulties, which then derive into social problems. Based on statistics from the last decade, Taiwan’s long-term unemployment structure shows an increasing number of highly educated workers, youths, and first-time job seekers who are unemployed for longperiods. The C168 - Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Conventionfrom the International Labor Organization (ILO)provides a special provision (Special Provisions For New Applicants For Employment), which asserts that first-time job seekers may face even more unemployment risk than general unemployed people and should be included for protection.
In contrast to Germany’s unemployment insurance, where laborers can apply for unemployment relief or job training from the labor department no matter whether they areinvoluntary or voluntarily unemployed, or Japan’s policy where voluntary resignees can apply for subsidies (although the amount may be different), Taiwan mainly focuses on involuntary resignees in regards to employment security insurance. If the scope of suitable subjects is not expanded to keep up with the times, an employment security loophole may be created. Furthermore, the current deficiencies in Taiwan’s income security assistance for first-time job seekers as they transition into the labor market and the threat towards labor survival and career development caused by the current system and its limitations must be explored so that Taiwan’s employment security system can be made more complete.
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