A delegation of 18 members from the Singapore’s College of Public Health and Occupational Physicians (CPHOP) visited the Center for Occupational Accident Prevention and Rehabilitation (hereinafter referred to as the Center) on November 2. During the meeting, there was a lively discussion on the job security of the new jobs in the "Gig Economy" such as delivery workers and self-employed workers, which is booming in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the occupational accident rehabilitation of foreign workers also attracted much attention.
 

CPHOP is one of the 13 branches of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, which is composed of experts with backgrounds in public health and occupational medicine and mainly provides public health, occupational medicine, continuing education and training for senior resident physicians. During this visit to Taiwan, the delegation led by Dr. Wong Shiu Hong of the Academy paid a special visit to the Center to exchange information on the treatment and rehabilitation system for workers suffering from occupational accidents. Ho Jiune-Jye, CEO of the Center, warmly received the delegation and announced that the Center will host the Asian Network of Occupational Hygiene Conference in 2025, and the scholars in the delegation will be welcome to come and give their valuable advice.

The “Enforcement” of regulations governing occupational accidents should be the focus of efforts for juristic persons.
 

Deputy CEO Wu Chen-Long reported on the Center's critical role in the treatment and rehabilitation of workers suffering from occupational accidents and even the prevention of accidents. He mentioned that in Taiwan, after the enactment of the “Labor Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act” in 2022, the protection of workers was extended from compensation to prevention and rehabilitation from occupational accidents. After the enactment of laws and policies by the public sector, how to "enforce" them is an important issue. The Center is responsible for formulating relevant professional and technical work guidelines, as well as provisions of business-side counseling, education and training for business entities, with the ultimate goal of assisting them in risk management and promoting labor-management harmony.
 

Mr. Wu Chen-Long also mentioned that for the target strategy of maintaining the physical and mental health of workers, Taiwan's current regulations specifically stipulate that employers of business entities with 50 or more workers engaged in operations with special hazards to health must hire or contract on-site health service personnel. As for business entities with 49 or fewer workers, there is no mandatory requirement for the time being. These types of industries employ about 5 million workers, which poses a challenge that Taiwan and the Center have to actively deal with.
 

Taiwan has formulated guidelines to protect delivery workers while Singapore increases medical insurance coverage for foreign workers.
 

The Singapore delegation was particularly concerned about Taiwan's regulations for promotion of on-site health services for enterprises to facilitate the implementation of labor health protection. The delegation mentioned that during the wake of the pandemic, more and more self-employed workers have switched to online food delivery services. They wondered if Taiwan has any protection mechanism for this group of people. Mr. Wu Chen-Long responded that the Ministry of Labor has formulated relevant safety and health guidelines to regulate the responsibilities of business operators, including insurance coverage and health education, and continues to work on refining assistance after occupational accidents.
 

In addition, in regard to the problem of foreign workers suffering from occupational accidents, the scholars from Singapore at the meeting shared that Singapore has made two major changes in the protection of foreign workers after the pandemic. First, employers of foreign workers living in dormitories in the construction and manufacturing industries were mandated by law to pay a sum of money every year to enable foreign workers to enjoy unlimited medical care at six medical centers in Singapore and foreign workers only need to pay $5 (equivalent to about NT$120) per medical visit. The other is the requirement for employers to increase the minimum medical insurance amount for foreign workers from the current $15,000 per worker per annum to $60,000 per worker per annum (about NT$1.44 million) from July this year.

In response, Mr. Wu Chen-Long emphasized that Taiwan's “Labor Standards Act” does not differentiate between local and foreign workers, and both groups of workers will be "treated equally" at hospitals for medical care after occupational accidents. Foreign workers who legally come to Taiwan to work can apply for occupational accident subsidies in the same way as Taiwanese workers. However, he also frankly pointed out that more efforts should be made for Taiwan's occupational accident rehabilitation.
 

Mr. Wu Chen-Long pointed out that, in practice, some Taiwanese physicians are rather “passive” to establish a doctor-patient relationship, and will not actively advise patients to return to work early. Continuing professional education is an important direction of the policy for promotion, so that physicians are willing to assist workers suffering from occupational accidents to participate in the return to work process. Mr. Wu smiled and said, "That's why I want to hear about how Singapore deals with it". Unexpectedly, the participants in the meeting immediately responded, "We have the same problem, so we want to hear what Taiwan is doing." This caused a lot of laughter among the participants. The exchange session lasted for nearly three hours, with lively and uninterrupted discussions between the two sides, demonstrating the importance of labor health protection attached by the two countries and the opportunities for future exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.