Fed up with an increasing number of deaths from overwork and what is seen as deteriorating labor conditions, labor group representatives intend to invite Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to a “poor people’s breakfast” today to demand that the government pay attention to the plight of the working poor.
Representatives from dozens of labor groups, including the Taiwan Labor Front (TLF), the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, the National Federation of Bank Employees Unions and Green Party Taiwan have planned a series of demonstrations and activities ahead of Labor Day on May 1.
They are expected to head to the Executive Yuan today to deliver an invitation for Wu to attend a “poor people’s breakfast,” during which they hope government officials will listen to the needs of those who find themselves poor or borderline-poor.
The “poor people’s breakfast” is intended to mock the government’s frequent breakfast meetings with business interest groups and heads of large corporations from various industries.
TLF secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said that despite the official statistics — such as unemployment rates seemingly pointing to improvements in the labor market — a majority of the nation’s working population is still struggling to make ends meet.
“No matter how much the economy has reportedly grown, our workforce is still unable to have its fair share of the pie,” he said.
Son said numerous factors, such as the widening gap between the rich and the poor, deteriorating work conditions in a wide range of industries and an inadequate system of social security, had contributed to increased worker exploitation and unfair treatment by employers.
The groups said they hoped the government would take the time to sit down with them and listen to their needs, to close the gap between the government and ordinary citizens.
The groups also hope government officials will prioritize severe violations of labor rights, underscored recently by increasingly visible cases of death from overwork, as employees in high-stress job environments are literally worked to death under the system of “job responsibility.”
The Council of Labor Affairs on March 14 said an investigation had concluded that the sudden death last year of a 29-year-old man who regularly worked overtime at Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) was caused by overwork.
Before his death, Hsu Shao-pin (徐紹斌), who started working at Nanya in 2006 as an engineer, sometimes clocked as much as 139 hours of overtime a month. He had been putting in an average of 80 hours of overtime a month for half a year.
In addition to the breakfast meeting, labor groups have also planned a massive “anti-poverty” march on Labor Day.
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