Former newspaper delivery workers `beg' for severance

Fifty-seven former delivery people of the Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News (台灣新生報) yesterday dressed like beggars in front of the Government Information Office (GIO) to protest what they consider lack of compensation over their dismissals.

The 57 delivery people were dismissed when the newspaper was transferred from the Taiwan Provincial Government to the GIO at the end of last year.

GIO spokesperson Chang Yu-jan (張裕然) said that the GIO could only serve as a mediator between the former employees and the newspaper.

"The GIO has nothing to do with the employer, and we have to respect other shareholders' opinions," Chang said.

A member of the newspaper's management team, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the newspaper would simply follow the GIO's decision on the issue.

Lee Pao-chu (李寶珠), who worked for the newspaper for 19 years but was dismissed without compensation, said that the former delivery people were only asking to be treated in accordance with the labor standards law.

"We just want to be treated in accordance with the labor standards law. I don't know why they're being so hard," Lee said

The Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News used to belong to the Taiwan Provincial government, and its employees were considered public officials before the provincial government was streamlined at the end of 1996.

The 57 protesters see themselves as official employees of the newspaper and say they should receive compensation in the same way as other dismissed employees, according to a formula based on the number of years worked multiplied by two, plus seven months.

The newspaper says that since it views the delivery people as short-term contract employees, it was entitled to dismiss them without compensation.

Chang said that the delivery people and the newspaper reached an agreement on Jan. 2, but the delivery people were now asking for more. "They accepted the employer's offer of compensation in accordance with the labor standards law on Jan. 2, but now they just want more," he said.

According to Lee, a deal was accepted on the basis that the newspaper would also pay the delivery people unpaid annual-bonuses dating back seven years. Otherwise, he said, the newspaper should compensate them in the same manner as other dismissed official employees.

The delivery workers also plan to protest in front of the presidential office today and later in front of the premier's residence and the American Institute in Taiwan.