The government should ask local companies to earmark funds for suicide prevention to help employees, encourage the establishment of strong trade unions and combat an increase in suicide in the workforce, an expert said on Saturday.
“Big companies should be asked to appropriate a certain percentage of funds from their revenues to help their workers,” said Andrew Cheng (鄭泰安), a research fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica.
Cheng also called for the formation of strong trade unions so workers suffering from depression or other illnesses that might lead to suicide would not need to worry about being fired if they inform companies of their problems.
In Taiwan, however, most employers are small and medium-sized enterprises, which makes it difficult for workers to form trade unions — under law, a union cannot be formed unless there is a minimum of 30 workers at a company.
Cheng said that workers in this situation should join a big trade union in their industry if possible or seek assistance from the Council of Labor Affairs.
Suicide is one of the top 10 causes of death in Taiwan, according to the Department of Health.
Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said at the same event that the work environment is deteriorating because the basic wage level for young people has been falling.
“This will put more pressure on young people, as they do not get a fair salary for the work they do, while at the same time they face long work hours and a heavy workload,” he said.
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