The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will convene a meeting on minimum wage adjustment on Tuesday to allow representatives of both employers and employees to exchange views on the possibility of a wage hike, a council official said yesterday.
CLA Deputy Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) said the meeting would fulfill a pledge made last year to review the minimum wage again.
The meeting will be attended by 22 committee members, including four representatives for employers, four for employees and 14 government officials, including CLA Minister Wang Ju-hsuan (王如玄), Pan said.
The minimum wage was increased last July by 9.09 percent to NT$17,280 (US$551) per month or NT$95 per hour.
At a meeting yesterday in preparation for the formal meeting next week, representatives of both the employers and employees disagreed on the issue.
Jen Mu-shan (任睦杉), president of the National Trade Union Confederation and a representative of the employees, said last year’s increase was not enough.
Huang Cheng-yu (黃呈玉), a member of the Manufacturers’ United General Association of Industrial Parks and a representative of the employers, said another wage hike would create a heavier burden for employers, especially when the country’s economy is not performing well.
Because of the opposing viewpoints, the meeting between the two sides failed to reach a consensus and the discussion will continue next week.
Pan said the CLA would respect any conclusions made by the committee.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard