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A Contractor's Worker Dies on a Taiwan Site: How Accident Insurance Can Shape the Host Company's Share

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One administrative fact can move a Taiwan host company's exposure after a contractor's worker is killed: whether the worker's employer enrolled the worker in occupational accident insurance. Under Article 89 of the Labor Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act, a business unit that contracts out its own business is jointly liable with the contractor for the occupational accident compensation owed to the contractor's workers, and that compensation follows the Labor Standards Act. How large it turns out to be is likely to depend on the insurance file.

The host's safety duties before and during the job, the eight-hour accident report and criminal exposure are covered in a separate column on the Kaohsiung fab site deaths. In short, a host whose own breach of the Occupational Safety and Health Act or related safety rules caused the accident also shares damages (Article 25(2)), and negligent homicide under Criminal Code Article 276 may be investigated, with anyone investigated presumed innocent until convicted by a final judgment.

The compensation being shared

For a work-related death, Labor Standards Act Article 59 requires five months' average wages for the funeral and a lump sum of forty months' average wages for the survivors. Fault plays no part. Article 25(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act places the same joint liability on the host as Article 89 does, and in longer chains Labor Standards Act Article 62 brings in intermediate contractors alongside the last one.

If the contractor enrolled the worker

Coverage reaches workers aged 15 and over whose employer is licensed, registered, holds a tax registration or has a permit to employ foreign workers (Article 6). Enrollment is due on the worker's first day (Article 12). Where the employer enrolled the worker and paid premiums, and the insurer accepts the death as an insured accident, Article 90(3) recalculates the Labor Standards Act compensation on the gap between average wages and average insured salary, using the same Article 59 month multiples.

That gap is the number to watch. A contractor that declared an insured salary well below actual pay leaves a larger gap, and because Article 89 makes the host jointly liable for the same compensation, that gap is likely what the host shares. The statute does not say this in so many words; it follows from the joint liability.

Insurance benefits for the family are separate money. They include a funeral allowance of five months' average monthly insured salary, or ten where no survivors remain, and either a survivor's annuity at 50% of that salary or a lump sum of forty months (Articles 49 and 51).

If the contractor never enrolled the worker

Even then, if the employer is one Article 6 covers, the family is paid. The insurer pays the benefits, then fixes, within what it paid, the amount the employer owes and orders payment by a deadline through a written administrative disposition (Article 36). Only once the employer has paid that amount may the benefits be credited against its Article 59 compensation (Article 36(2)).

What does that mean for the host? While the contractor has not paid the insurer, Article 36(2) gives no credit against the compensation, and the host's joint liability under Article 89 is likely to follow that same compensation.

Paying, then recovering

Joint liability decides who the family can collect from, not who bears the cost in the end. A host that pays has recourse against the worker's employer (Article 89(2)). Within a chain, those who paid can recover from the last contractor (Labor Standards Act Article 62(2)). Costs the employer already paid for the same accident may be offset (Article 89(3)), and an employer that paid compensation before the insurance claim can ask for the offsettable amount back after the benefits come through (Article 90(1)).

Damages sit on top. The worker's own employer owes them unless it proves it was not at fault (Article 91), and compensation already paid may be credited against damages for the same accident (Labor Standards Act Article 60). Clocks differ, too: the right to Labor Standards Act compensation lapses after two years from when it could be received (Article 61), the right to insurance benefits after five (Insurance and Protection Act, Article 37).

Xinzhuang, still under investigation

On October 24, two workers installing an elevator at a residential construction site in Xinzhuang, New Taipei, fell from about the third-floor level down the shaft and died, the Central News Agency reported. New Taipei's labor inspection office said its initial findings were that a construction firm had assigned the two to the installation and that a cable on the work platform broke. The cause of the break is under investigation, and the office ordered the related work halted (Liberty Times). Reports have not said who employed the two men, whether they were enrolled, or how the job was contracted. No one has been found responsible.

A Taiwan lawyer can review your contracting documents for enrollment, insurance and indemnity terms, trace joint liability and recourse along the contractor chain after an accident, help an employer answer an insurer's disposition or a labor inspection, and handle compensation and damages negotiations or litigation with families. Consultations with an English-speaking lawyer in Taipei are available through Hovering International Law Firm at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw; see our labor and employment services. Taipei office: 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103 (臺北市大同區承德路一段35號7樓之2).

Until it is known who employed the two workers in Xinzhuang, nobody can say whose enrollment record will set the size of the compensation.

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a host company get back what it pays a contractor's worker or family?
Article 89(2) of the Labor Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act gives a business unit or contractor that paid occupational accident compensation a right of recourse against the injured worker's employer. In a longer chain, Article 62(2) of the Labor Standards Act lets those who paid recover from the last contractor. Costs the employer already paid for the same accident may be offset under Article 89(3).
What if the employer paid compensation before the family claimed insurance?
Article 90(1) of the Insurance and Protection Act lets an employer that paid Labor Standards Act Article 59 compensation before the insurance claim ask for the offsettable amount back once the insurance benefits have been paid.
How does a contractor's failure to enroll its worker affect the host?
If the contractor is an employer Article 6 covers, the family is still paid: under Article 36(1) the insurer pays the benefits and then orders the employer, by written administrative disposition, to pay an amount fixed within what was paid. Only after the employer pays that amount may the benefits be credited against its Article 59 compensation (Article 36(2)). A host that contracted out its own business is jointly liable for the compensation under Article 89(1), so the missing credit is likely to reach the host as well.

This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.

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