Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) yesterday defended the council’s decision to offer labor insurance loans at an interest rate of 2.935 percent, saying that if the interest rate were any lower, the benefits of 8.8 million workers would be adversely affected.
Despite Wang’s comments, legislators passed an impromptu motion prohibiting the loan rate from exceeding 1.92 percent during the legislature’s Health, Environment and Labor Committee meeting.
The labor loan insurance program was designed to help workers in poor financial conditions by giving them loans of up to NT$100,000 (US$3,035) based on their past record of paying labor insurance fees and several other conditions. The council started accepting loan applications two weeks ago, and so far, more than 100,000 people have applied. The number of applicants this year is expected to be the highest in the history of the loan program.
However, the council was criticized by legislators and union representatives for not offering lower rates, since the loan is intended to help the poor. Legislators said the housing loan offered to civil servants and teachers was at an interest rate of only 1.92 percent, so it would be unfair to offer loans at an interest rate higher than this level to struggling workers.
Wang defended the higher interest rate by expressing concern about the financial condition of the labor insurance fund.
“Because the loans are paid out from the labor insurance fund, it would not be fair to the 8.8 million workers, whose benefits could be affected,” she said.
The loan plan originally called for council officials to review and adjust the interest rate, if necessary, once every six months. However, Wang conceded yesterday by agreeing to review the loan interest rate within one month at the earliest.
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 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
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
RSS