A request by former freeway toll collectors that the government arrange new jobs for them is not feasible, the National Freeway Bureau said yesterday, adding that it is no longer contractually obliged to find jobs for the collectors after the distance-based freeway toll fee charging system was launched in January this year and they became unemployed.
Following the conclusion of an arbitration meeting on May 9 between the bureau, former freeway toll collectors and representatives of the Ministry of Labor, the bureau was asked to submit an evaluation before Friday next week on whether it is possible to arrange for the former toll collectors to work in agencies under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, or give them larger severance payments than those required by law.
The bureau said that it had already terminated its contractual relations with the toll collectors based on the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法). It is not legally obligated to find jobs for them, it added.
Photo: Huang Lee-hsiang, Taipei Times
“The Labor Standards Act states that employers are responsible for the job placement of workers and the bureau is not the employer anymore following the termination of the employment contract,” the bureau said in a statement.
The bureau said that government agencies are limited in the number of employees they are legally able to hire, as it involves the budget allocated to each agency. Unlike private corporations, a government agency cannot violate the law to hire any amount of people it sees fit.
In addition, the bureau said that the government does not need any toll collectors, because all the toll booths on the nation’s freeways are now closed after the launch of the distance-based electronic toll collection system earlier this year.
The agency added that it also does not have any large project running at the moment that could help it to afford to hire additional personnel.
Regarding the toll collectors’ requests for more severance pay, the bureau said that the unprecedented move would open a floodgate of claims filed by other government agency employees, and such a change in government policy cannot be unilaterally determined by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Based on the bureau’s contract with Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co, the contractor administering the electronic toll collection system, the contractor is supposed to provide job openings for former toll collectors applying for work by the end of this month.
There are about 111 former toll collectors who have not attended any job interviews. They are to receive five months’ salary as severance pay, as the bureau regards them as having rejected any employment opportunity.
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