Citing work-related depression because of unfair practices, an employee on Wednesday won a landmark court case — the first time a labor compensation case for depression caused by the workplace as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) had been won.
The case involved an employee at Unitech PCB Corp, surnamed Chen (陳), who was in a managerial position, but was demoted to a lower rank, leading to her depression.
In a ruling in a lower court, the judge ruled against Chen, who appealed the decision.
Overturning the ruling on Wednesday, the High Court said there was a cause-and-effect relationship between Chen’s depression and work-related occupational illness.
The court ruled that Unitech must compensate Chen NT$2.37 million for her emotional distress, her medical expenses and for unfair dismissal.
The ruling can be appealed.
A Unitech spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Chen’s lawyer, Lin San-chia (林三加), said the case had taken four years to pass through the judicial process and that it had become a symbolic case for workers.
“It is the first successful case to have compensation awarded for depression under the act,” Lin said.
Chen’s husband said the couple were cheered by the decision, adding that his wife still wanted to get a job and earn a regular wage, but because of her condition she is not able to do so and that he does not want her to.
She is only doing some odd jobs here and there, but they are getting by financially, he said.
Chen started her job in quality control at Unitech in 1999. After receiving A’s for six years in a row in her performance evaluations, she was promoted in 2005.
However, she had a dispute with a co-worker in 2006, leading to her demotion and a cut in wages as she was removed from her position.
Chen said she was insulted by her supervisor, was transferred to a new section and was treated like “garbage,” causing her to weep and contemplate suicide.
She claimed she was unfairly dismissed in 2009 and a hospital diagnosed that she was suffering from “neurotic depression” caused by work-related stress.
She then sued Unitech for compensation, in accordance with the Workers Incurring Occupational Accidents Act (職業災害勞工保護法).
Unitech argued that Chen was unsuited to a managerial position and transferred her to another section.
During the proceedings, the High Court requested that National Taiwan University Hospital determine the cause of Chen’s depression and it said there was a more than a 50 percent chance her condition was work-related.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching