For employees around Taiwan, working overtime has become par for the course, according to a recent survey. But most of them do not get compensated for their extra hours of work, because they are categorized by the employers as "exempt professionals," to whom the usual pay-and-break requirements do not apply. The authorities are now probing into the situation to see if there's any violation of labor law.

Mr. Wu, age 28, used to be an engineer at an IT company.

However, three months ago, he has left his job and started a tea shop business with his co-workers because he is fed up with the endless overtime.

According to a survey by a job bank, 80% of the office workers are just like Mr. Wu, who was assigned as a project-based staff and overtime is almost an everyday deal for them.

Also, according to the survey, the top three overtime sectors are: information technology, second is IT and construction, then it is real estates and media.

Some of the workers work so much that there isnt even time to sleep.

According to the Labor Standards Act, even for those industries that are categorized as project-based, they have to be approved by the local government, or they will be fined from NT$6,000 to 60,000.

As for non-project-based industries, overtime must follow all regulations from the Labor Standards Act, which means that every day office hour should not be more than 12 hours and overtime payment should abide to the law.

If any violation, there will be a fine of NT$6,000 to 60,000; and if theres any other violation regarding to overtime, it should be reported to the Department of Labor.

There will also be a group of officials organized by the Taipei City Government to investigate this problem at all the science parks in Neihu and Nangang starting this month.

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