A coalition of more than 13 labor groups continued protests yesterday against the government's policy U-turn on the length of the workweek, saying labor rights are being sacrificed to the current political struggle.
Following the Executive Yuan's decision on Thursday to reverse a decision passed by the legislature, which reduced the maximum workweek to 84 hours in a fortnight, the groups have united to voice their strong opposition to the policy reversal.
Over a hundred labor rights advocates staged a demonstration at the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, trying to make their anger heard to the government.
Workweek policy has been a hot issue since the government, which had been seen as being labor-friendly, began pushing for a cut to the existing maximum workweek of 48 hours in June.
Originally, the Executive Yuan had reached a consensus with industry and labor groups to reduce the workweek to a maximum of 44-hours. However, when the Executive Yuan's proposal was sent to a vote in the legislature, the KMT, which holds a majority of seats, proposed the even more alluring 84-hours every fortnight and passed legislation to this effect on June 16.
According to the Constitution, the Executive Yuan can request that the legislature reconsider a bill which is difficult to implement. Nevertheless, the Executive Yuan did not take any action to reverse the legislature's 84-hour decision.
Defending its policy U-turn, the Executive Yuan has reasoned that a return to the 44-hour standard is necessary because the 84-hour decision has prompted a flood of companies to leave the country and added to Taiwan's economic slowdown.
However, the groups said that the root of Taiwan's economic problems is the political turmoil now enveloping the country, for which they claimed both the ruling party and the opposition are responsible. They said it is not fair to blame the reduction of the workweek for companies moving abroad or the economic slowdown.
Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官), president of the Chinese Federation of Labor (全國總工會), one of the three national labor unions in Taiwan, said before the Labor Standard Law was implemented in 1984, laborers were warned that the law would discourage industries from staying in the country and were told they would lose their jobs in the end. The prediction was proved false, but now the same threats are being made to the laborers over the workweek issue, he said.
"The political situation is apparently the source of the various economic problems, we can't accept the workweek issue being used as a scapegoat and laborers' rights being sacrificed," Lin said.
The groups insisted the Executive Yuan stick to the 84-hour decision, but they also suggested a possible scenario of concession.
They said if the Executive Yuan could have industries promise "to maintain their roots in Taiwan" (
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao
RSS