Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday decided that beginning next year, the minimum wage will be contingent on growth in the consumer price index (CPI), a policy drawing severe criticism from labor groups.
With a threshold of a cumulative CPI growth of 3 percent or higher needed before the minimum wage will be reviewed, “it is highly likely that the basic wage levels will remain stagnant in the remaining three years of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) tenure,” Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said.
The Executive Yuan issued a press statement yesterday saying Jiang has given the green light to the proposed rises in hourly and monthly minimum wages, along with a policy to tie adjustments to minimum wages to CPI growth, presented by the Council of Labor Affairs last month.
Photo: CNA
Under the proposal, the minimum hourly wage will be raised from NT$109 to NT$115, starting Jan. 1 next year, while the minimum monthly wage, which is now NT$19,047, will be increased to NT$19,273, effective July 1 next year.
The Executive Yuan has assessed that more than 1.76 million workers paid monthly, including 240,000 migrant workers, and more than 310,000 hourly workers will benefit from the wage adjustment.
Meanwhile, beginning next year, the council’s Minimum Wage Review Committee, which holds an annual review on minimum wages, will be held only when CPI increases by 3 percent or higher, according to the proposal.
In the press statement, the Executive Yuan said that the council’s proposal was adopted by Jiang because consensus was reached among representatives of labor groups, businesses, academics and officials at the council’s committee.
Son disputed the Executive Yuan’s claim, saying labor groups have repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of reviewing the minimum wage only after the growth rate of CPI surpasses 3 percent.
It is a violation of Article 5 of the Regulations for the Deliberation of Basic Wage (基本工資審議辦法) that “the minimum wage review committee should on principle convene in the third quarter of every year to review wages,” Son said.
The rule gives the committee flexibility about when during the year it meets to consider the minimum wage, but it prescribes that it “must convene every year” to review whether adjustments should be made to the basic salary levels, he added.
Scrapping the rule unilaterally is “detrimental to Taiwan’s employment standards” and was “aimed at pleasing conglomerates,” Son said.
Furthermore, according to Article 4 of the Regulations for the Deliberation of Basic Wage, CPI was just one of the seven elements to be factored in when the committee reviews the minimum wages, Son said.
The article stipulated that the committee must also study conditions of national economic development, wholesale price index, national income and average individual income, labor productivity of different industries and their employment situation, workers’ wages in different industries, and statistical figures on household income and expenditure, in addition to the retail price index.
The council said last month that normally, 3 percent or higher CPI growth takes two years.
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS