President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that the government would work to strike a balance between the interests of workers and industry, and find a win-win solution for both sides.
At a meeting with business leaders, Tsai said that while the administration would not leave enterprises to face the pressures of transformation alone, it would be certain to ensure workers’ rights.
She made the comment in response to the ongoing dispute concerning workers’ hours while meeting 55 of the Chinese National Federation of Industries board directors and supervisors, including chairman Hsu Sheng-hsiung (許勝雄) and vice chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允).
Photo: CNA
Tsai said that when she met representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises several weeks ago, she told them that industries in Taiwan have to speed up their transformation so that their profits can increase, more jobs can be created and salaries can be raised.
Tsai said that she understands that enterprises have to race against time to complete orders, while workers care more about salary levels and rest breaks.
“As the head of state, my job is not to curry favor with anybody. My responsibility is to decide on a direction of development for the nation and to ensure that everyone is on the development train,” Tsai said, adding that workers and businesses should move toward the goal together.
The nation’s most important goal is modification of the economic structure, she said, adding that the government would improve the investment environment and take measures to help companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises — which account for 98 percent of Taiwan’s total businesses — to transform themselves, while ensuring workers’ rights.
“The government has the responsibility to pull workers back from the brink of low pay and overwork,” she said, adding that the government would ensure all workers’ rights to receive paid holidays and overtime pay, and impose restrictions on work hours through robust enforcement of labor laws.
Tsai also said businesses should think about how to generate benefits and improve employees’ working conditions.
She also mentioned the dispute over a draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), saying that the proposal is aimed at ensuring workers’ right to a maximum of two paid days off per week, but has sparked heated debate among employees and employers.
The Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan should do their utmost to explain the issue to those concerned and allow them to express their views in order to reach a consensus on the matter, she said.
The government would also tackle a dispute regarding whether to cut the number of officially designated holidays per year from 19 to 12, as part of its plans to implement a two days off, 40-hour work week system, Tsai said.
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