With just over a month to go before Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) starts operating, the issue of what will happen to the livelihoods of toll-booth operators was brought up by legislators yesterday.
In response to queries by People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), who cited local media reports saying that staff in charge of highway toll booths are protesting against the measure, Director of the Taiwan Area National Freeway Transportation Bureau Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇) said, "Workers are not protesting; this is an unnecessary misunderstanding," adding that no one was being "forced" to leave.
Chen said that news reports arose as a result of complaints by one or two members of staff who want better redundancy packages when their jobs are terminated once ETC starts operating.
He said, however, that the Taiwan Freeway National Trans-portation Bureau had promised to give workers five guarantees, including job transfers, to play a part in ETC operations.
Those who opt not to get a job transfer, apart from the normal redundancy package, will get five months' salary each.
Currently, there are 1,100 workers employed in freeway toll booths across the country. During the 5-year ETC initiative, the government plans to reduce staff members depending on how things pan out.
Lee also brought up concerns about whether all freeway users would be required to use the new system, saying that according to basic consumer rights, "people should have the right to choose."
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) asked whether there will be added costs for drivers who choose not to install On Board Units, which is required to work in conjunction with the ETC system, after the five-year ETC initiative.
Lin gave the assurance that this would not be the case.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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