Despite written in black and white in a publication, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) denied that it promised a group of laid-off workers 16 years ago that it would ask their runaway employers to repay a loan given to the workers as retirement payouts, triggering criticism from the public.
In 1997, when several companies — including Lien-fu Textile Co (聯福紡織), Dong-ling Electronics Co (東菱電子) and Fu-chang Electronics Co (福昌電子) — closed their doors without prior notice and their bosses declared bankruptcy, the council assisted the newly jobless workers by giving them retirement payouts using government funds, and promised that it would ask their employers, not the workers themselves, to repay the debt.
However, in recent years, many of these workers have received requests from the CLA asking them to repay their loans, and those who were unable to pay have been sued by the council.
The workers, as well as labor rights groups, have petitioned and staged numerous protests, including paralyzing the rail service at Taipei Railway Station on Tuesday.
On Thursday, some Internet users found a book on the history of the labor movement published by the CLA in 2011, in which Hsu Chieh-kui (許介圭), who served as the head of the council in 1997, was quoted as saying that the council did not intend to ask the workers to repay their loans, but would ask their employers to pay back the full amount.
However, the council yesterday denied that the official publication represents the council’s official view.
“The writing of the book was commissioned to a group of researchers. What it represents are the views of the researchers, as well as reports by media outlets at the time,” a council statement said. “The content of the book represents neither the official view nor the basis on which the government handles the issue.”
The CLA’s response triggered criticism from Internet users.
“If an official publication does not represent the official view, then what is it good for?” a Facebook user called Tsung-ying (蹤影) said.
“Bu it’s written in black on white!” said another Facebook user, Nicole Lin (林凱雯).
In addition to the book, CLA officials were at the time quoted by several newspapers, including the Chinese-language United Evening News and Economic Daily News, as saying that the money given to the workers was to be repaid by their employers, not the workers themselves.
CLA Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) did not respond to the Taipei Times’ request for comment.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS