Business and labor representatives are both unhappy with the new minimum wage announced by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday, with labor groups vowing to file a petition with the Control Yuan against the decision.
“We regret the decision, it is not acceptable,” said Lin Chin-yung (林進勇), a board member of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions and the chairman of the Tatung Union.
“The minimum wage should be at a level that would allow laborers to feed their families, but the new minimum wage is apparently not sufficient for them to do so,” Lin said after walking out of the council’s meeting on the minimum wage, where he had been one of the labor representatives.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
After the meeting — which lasted about five hours — Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) announced the minimum wage would be raised by 5.03 percent, from NT$17,880 per month to NT$18,780, or from NT$98 per hour to NT$103 per hour.
Labor groups wanted a NT$23,459 monthly minimum.
Lin said labor groups would ask the Control Yuan to investigate whether the council’s decision was appropriate.
Business leaders said the decision would hurt them.
Chinese National Federation of Industries board member Tsai Sui (蔡穗), who represented businesses in the meeting, said the increase in the minimum wage would be too much of a burden for businesses.
“The 5.03 percent raise is just too much,” he told reporters. “The raise means businesses will have to spend NT$34.8 billion extra a year in salaries. This will hurt the competitiveness of Taiwanese businesses.”
Tsai said he would meet with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) today to discuss the issue.
During the meeting, business representatives said they hoped to keep any increase to just 3.47 percent, the same as last year’s increase.
Businesses and labor groups have had a tense relationship ahead of the council meeting.
As the meeting started yesterday morning, hundreds of Taiwanese and foreign workers staged a demonstration outside the council’s headquarters in Taipei.
“We are here to support the demands of fellow Taiwanese workers,” a Filipino migrant worker said. “The minimum wage rule should apply to both domestic and foreign workers.”
When some of the labor group members tried to enter the building, there were clashes with police, but the conflict did not last long and no one was injured.
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