台灣工時規範之法規執行度－從法律規範之「應然」到「實然」

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the average yearly working hours of workers, the Statutory-hour Strictness, the Observance Degree, and the Effective Regulatory Index for working-hours in Taiwan. Methods: The Effective Regulation Index was defined as the average of Statutory-hour Strictness and the Observance Degree. The dataset of the Human Resource Survey from 1978 to 2010 compiled by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan was used in the study. The changes in regulations for working hours in Taiwan were determined. Then the average yearly working hours of workers, the Statutory-hour Strictness, the Observance Degree and the Effective Regulation Index for working hours in Taiwan were calculated. Information from 2004 was further analyzed for comparison with other countries. Results: The average working hours of workers in Taiwan were comparatively high. Before 2000, the average working hours per week were above 46. After 2000, average working hours per week were still above 44, except for 43 hours in 2009. The Statutory-hour Strictness rose from 0 to 4.6 in 2000. The Observance Degree slowly increased from 6.4 in 1978 to 8.64 in 1999; although it dropped to 1.6 in 2000, it remained stable around 5 after 2000. The Effective Regulation Index for working hours in Taiwan was between 2.9 and 4.3 before 2000, but remained between 4.7 and 5.3 in the 21st century. In 2004, the Observance Degree of the working regulations was 5.2, and the Effective Regulation Index was 4.9. Conclusions: The huge gap between regulations and reality in working hours in Taiwan showed the ineffectiveness of working-hours regulation. We suggest increasing workers' awareness of regulations and strengthening enforcement of the working regulations by improving the labor inspection system in Taiwan.