Following the death of a social worker in Taitung County last month, allegedly from overwork, dozens of her colleagues yesterday staged a demonstration outside the Control Yuan over what they called the government’s refusal to provide better benefits to workers and lack of manpower.
“Are we not professional enough? Do we not have professional knowledge and skills?” Modern Women’s Foundation executive director Yao Shu-wen (姚淑文), a veteran social worker, called out through a loudspeaker.
“No!” the protesters shouted back.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“Then why does the government refuse to give us professional pensions?” Yao asked.
The Executive Yuan’s Central Personnel Administration (CPA) has rejected requests for professional pensions and hazard pay, based on the argument that professional pensions do not apply to people without the status of government employees even if they work for the government. It also maintains that social workers’ jobs are not as “hazardous” as that of police officers and firefighters.
However, Yao said that as a result of manpower shortages, social workers often have to work overtime and are on call 24 hours a day without additional pay.
On some occasions, they also find themselves in life-threatening situations.
“There was even one instance when, as a social worker was accompanying a victim of [domestic] abuse to court, gang members affiliated with the victim’s husband blocked every doorway at the courthouse while attacking the spouse and the social worker,” Yao said.
Taiwan Coalition Against Violence president Chou Ching-yu (周清玉) said social workers were poorly paid because the majority were working on contract despite working for government social affairs departments.
“One example is that of a senior social worker in Changhua County who has worked as a social worker for more than 30 years and is now a supervisor. However, her monthly pay is slightly more than NT$40,000,” Chou said.
Raising social workers’ pay would make an important contribution, as many end up quitting because they don’t earn enough to support their families, Chou added.
Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) said that while more than 120,000 cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault requiring the intervention of social workers were reported annually, the nation has only about 660 social workers.
“This shows the government doesn’t really care about social workers or the people they help,” Kang said. “Their mentality is that it’s good enough as long as nothing [bad] happens.”
Social workers said they could no longer bear the situation, which had been allowed to simmer for years, after the death of Taitung social worker Fang Feng-chen (方鳳珍) late last month.
Following her death, the groups filed a petition with the Control Yuan asking it to launch a probe into whether the CPA and the Ministry of the Interior were guilty of administrative wrongdoing.
Responding to the protest, the ministry’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee executive secretary Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟) said it was committed to helping government-employed social workers qualify for professional pensions and hazard pay, adding that the ministry would also discuss salary adjustments for outsourced and contractual social workers with the Cabinet.
Chien said the ministry had also launched a six-year project to increase manpower.
“This year, 600 more social workers will be introduced, with at least 200 focusing solely on cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault,” she said.
CPA Chief Secretary Chang Nien-chung (張念中) said the administration was reviewing regulations.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
‘NO EQUILIBRIUM’: Taiwan’s increased defense spending is a good step, but it needs to do more to have the ability to deter aggression from China, a senior US official said The US plans to sell as many as seven major weapons systems — including mines, cruise missiles and drones — to Taiwan, four people familiar with the discussions said. Pursuing seven sales at once is a rare departure from years of precedent in which US military sales to Taiwan were spaced out and carefully calibrated to minimize tensions with Beijing. However, US President Donald Trump’s administration has this year become more aggressive with China, and the sales would land as relations between Beijing and Washington are at their lowest point in decades over accusations of spying, lingering trade tensions, disputes about the
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: Several of the PLA fighter jets that crossed the median line of the Strait came within 68km of Hsinchu, drawing warnings from Taiwan, the ministry said At least 18 Chinese military aircraft yesterday flew into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on the second day of a US delegation’s visit, the Ministry of National Defense said, adding that the military responded by deploying an air defense missile system to monitor their activities. A delegation led by US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Keith Krach on Thursday started a three-day visit to Taiwan. The ministry from Thursday started publicizing the actions of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Taiwan’s ADIZ on its Web site and Twitter. According to ministry reports, 18 PLA aircraft
TWO CASES: The five allegedly conspired with conglomerates, threatening the nation’s governance and subverting the rules of ethical conduct, a deputy chief prosecutor said Taipei prosecutors yesterday charged three legislators and one former lawmaker with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) in a case linked to former Pacific Distribution Investment Co (太平洋流通) chairman Lee Heng-lung’s (李恆隆) battle with the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) over ownership of the Pacific SOGO Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) chain, while independent Legislator Chao Cheng-yu (趙正宇) was indicted in a separate case involving two funeral services companies and a plot of land in a national park. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) and Sufin Siluko (廖國棟), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清) and former New Power Party legislator
Swedish Member of Parliament Hampus Hagman is pushing for changing the name of the nation’s trade office in Taipei to signal improved relations with “Asia’s perhaps foremost democracy.” Hagman on Wednesday last week proposed renaming the Swedish Trade and Invest Council to “Sweden’s Office in Taipei,” following similar changes by other nations. The Swedish Trade and Invest Council, part of Business Sweden, is owned by the Swedish government and Swedish industry. Taiwan and Sweden share important values such as respect for democracy, human rights, the rule of law and freedom of speech, Hagman said in the motion, adding that the two nations
RSS