Nearly 10,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Taipei today for the annual Labor Day protests, their first stop being the Ministry of Labor where they will be singing to Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春), who has not been shy in displaying her vocal prowess while promoting the ministry’s policies.
To encourage young people to pay attention to their labor rights, Hsu in September last year pretended to be a factory worker as she sang an old Taiwanese song about a female worker yearning for better days.
Protest organizers have accused Hsu of “singing every day” and said their own “Song of Overwork” would air their grievances. Hsu has promised to listen carefully.
Labor Day protests have taken place almost every year for the past two decades, with overwork and underpay the recurring themes in the past few years, including last year, when protesters focused on several overwork and work-related accidents as well as the controversial amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) that had been passed that January.
They urged the government to raise the minimum wage to NT$28,000 per month and called on private companies to raise salaries by 10 percent on top of that, saying that salary adjustments continue to lag behind increases in housing and consumer goods prices.
The government did raise the minimum monthly salary — from NT$22,000 to NT$23,100 — effective Jan. 1 and increased the hourly pay rate from NT$140 to NT$150.
However, Taiwan still has some of the longest working hours in the world, and it is not uncommon to hear about employers circumventing regulations by forcing employees to clock out and continue working.
The main demands of today’s protest are “more holidays and better protection,” with calls for 13 new public holidays to allow workers more rest. This would be a good way to alleviate the overwork problem, since many employees are discouraged from using their paid leave, or simply have so much work that they cannot take it. Those who work on public holidays are paid double.
The protesters are also to call for paid maternity leave be increased from 56 to 90 days, which would still pale in comparison with many Western countries — except for the US — that offer more than 14 weeks, including Sweden, which provides 480 days to both parents.
In Asia, Hong Kong has increased its maternity leave from 10 weeks to 14 weeks, while China’s labor laws have guaranteed 98 days since 2012, with many provinces mandating even higher numbers. Even in Japan, which is notorious for its culture of overwork, new mothers are entitled to 14 weeks.
Another crucial issue is establishing a leave system for people who have to take care of a loved one for an extended period, an increasingly important provision in today’s aging society where there are going to be fewer people to share the duties of taking care of elderly parents and other relatives.
Labor rights groups are also calling for the abolition of Article 84-1 of the act, which exempts certain industries from work-hour restrictions, which has led to exploitation of foreign domestic helpers, but also affects security personnel and flight attendants, among others.
This is just a small portion of the demands and they are a lot to take in at once, but at the same time such demands demonstrate that Taiwan still has a long way to go in terms of labor rights.
Hsu said that the ministry is already working toward realizing such demands. The public should watch closely to see if it delivers.
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