With unemployment and forced unpaid leave on the rise, Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) officials said they had received more applications than ever for the labor insurance loan program.
According to Department of Labor Insurance statistics, since the council starting accepting applications two weeks ago, more than 100,000 people have applied for loans, exceeded the council’s estimate when it launched the program.
The labor insurance loan program was set up to help workers in poor financial conditions “have a good year,” which is why it must be paid out before the start of the Lunar New Year, said Shih Fa-chi (石發基), director of the Department of Labor Insurance.
Each eligible applicant may apply for loans of up to NT$100,000. The council has set aside a budget of NT$10 billion (US$300 million) for this program and estimated about 100,000 workers may be eligible.
Although the interest rate for this year’s loan program has been the lowest in the six-year history of the loan, the council was criticized by lawmakers and union representatives for not offering even lower rates, since the loan is intended to help the poor.
“The Central Bank has already lowered interest rates in an effort to boost the economy … The CLA should follow suit and offer lower rates [to workers for the loan],” said Chou Kuo-liang (周國良), acting chairman of the Miaoli County Confederation of Trade Unions.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS