Members of several workers’ associations gathered in front of the Council of Labor Affairs building yesterday to protest alleged violations of minimum salary regulations by companies who force employees to take unpaid leave.
The protesters called on the council to crack down on businesses that violate the law.
Many businesses have announced pay cuts in the past few months, with some asking workers to take unpaid leave to help cut costs. Last week, the council announced that firms were allowed to pay full-time employees less than the minimum monthly salary of NT$17,280 by forcing them to take unpaid leave. But after widespread criticism, it reversed its position on Tuesday.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The protest was organized by Raging Citizens Act Now! (RCAN) and gathered more than 50 representatives from several labor associations, including the Confederation of Taipei Trade Unions and the Taiwan International Workers’ Association.
The protesters carried signs and shouted: “Bad economy, workers are betrayed,” “the government should help workers negotiate” and “pay cuts disguised as unpaid leave.”
“We are giving one week for [CLA Minister] Jennifer Wang [王如玄] to review businesses and immediately penalize any that violate the law,” RCAN spokesperson Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) shouted. “Violators should not be eligible for bailout funds from the government.”
The protesters also demanded that employment stimulus programs, such as the ‘get to work immediately’ plan that applies only to the unemployed, be extended to workers forced to take unpaid leave.
“[The CLA] has many tools to stimulate employment, but so far, only verbal promises have been made. The CLA needs to show real commitment,” she said.
The protesters threw rice bowls at the ground to symbolize the CLA’s failure to help workers keep their jobs.
“Our rice bowls will eventually break,” Lai said.
They also threw rice at the CLA building.
After some shoving between police and protesters, Huang Wei-shen (黃維琛), head of the council’s labor standards section, came out of the building and spoke to the protesters.
He reiterated the council’s decision that businesses could not force workers to take unpaid leave and that workers could file complaints if their employers did so.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods