Print

Mail

wiki links

NGOs protest against planned teacher's march

Led by the Humanistic Education Foundation (人本教育基金會), more than 50 NGOs issued a joint press release to protest against the plan of the National Teachers' Association (NTA, 全國教師會) to take to the streets on Sept. 28, local Chinese-language media reported yesterday.

The NTA is slated to hold a demonstration on Teachers' Day, joined by the Chinese Federation of Labor (全總) and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (全產總), in a bid to earn the right to form their own labor unions and negotiate with their employers, the government.

But this plan has triggered a backlash among 50 organizations including the Taiwan's Association of University Professors (台灣教授協會), the Homemakers' Union and Foundation (主婦聯盟), the Garden of Hope Foundation (勵馨文教基金會) and the Taiwan Labor Front (台灣勞動陣線).

The press release issued yesterday said the NGOs agreed that teachers should be entitled to form labor unions and enjoy basic labor rights; but at the same time, teachers should abandon some benefits they have enjoyed along with civil servants, the document said.

The press release added that taxation is an obligation all people should fulfil and that teachers should not demand that the government make up the amount of the income tax they will have taken from their salaries if moves to end their traditional tax exempt status go ahead.

Personnel in the national defense, civil service and education sectors have long been exempted from tax and have enjoyed a preferential deposit interest rate of 18 percent. The Executive Yuan has proposed to remove their tax exemption and is expected to submit the bill to the legislature for review in October. If all goes smoothly, the tax exemptions will be abolished as early as January 2003.

The Humanistic Education Foundation said that based on social justice, teachers, except for low-income households, should not evade the responsibility of paying taxes. But during the transitional period, the foundation suggested that the government grant teachers proper subsidies for improving the educational environment, rather than putting money in teachers' pockets.
This story has been viewed 1496 times.