Accompanied by labor rights activists and Taiwan Broadcasting System (TBS) employees, laid-off TBS dispatch workers yesterday demonstrated outside the media group’s headquarters, accusing management of reneging on its promise to place all temporary workers on its official payroll.
“We [dispatch workers] were told to go for an interview with management before they decide whether we can become regular employees,” a former TBS dispatch worker, Chen Ying-chieh (陳盈潔), told reporters during the protest.
“Management told us not to worry too much, saying the interview was merely a process that we needed to go through. During the interview, the manager even congratulated me, saying I’ve worked at TBS for three years and may have 10 days of paid vacation,” Chen said.
Photo: Hu Shun-hsiang, Taipei Times
However, instead of being notified that she has become a permanent employee, Chen received a letter last month telling her that she had been laid off.
“TBS has always said that it stands for the public interest and human rights. How can it treat its own employees like this then?” Chen asked.
The plight of dispatch workers has largely been overlooked until a series of protests by TBS temporary workers last year. The demonstrations revealed that the media group has been using about 20 dispatch workers to fill some of its 900 positions.
TBS defended the practice as a way to save on costs of salaries and employee welfare payments.
However, while dispatch workers are supposed to fill temporary jobs, all of TBS’ dispatch workers filled regular positions, with some having worked for the group for more than seven years.
Responding to the protests and public criticism, TBS management said that it would turn all dispatch workers into regular employees. However, six of them have been laid off since then.
Lee Chiung-yueh (李瓊月), a senior features reporter for Public Television Service (PTS), a member of the TBS group, also showed up to show her support for her former colleagues.
“We produced a lot of in-depth reports on labor disputes, and we criticized employers for using illegal practices in treating their employees, such as not giving them a chance to appeal when they are laid off,” Lee said. “How can we continue to criticize others if our own company does the same thing?”
“I am not the only one from the news department here; many of my colleagues are also here to lend their support,” she added.
National Federation of Independent Trade Unions executive director Chu Wei-li (朱維立) said TBS was dodging its responsibilities as an employer by using dispatch workers.
“These people work in the TBS building under the direction of TBS management, yet, you’re saying these people are employees of the employment agency and thus have nothing to do with you,” Chu said.
“It’s a shame for a media group that has a very ‘positive’ public image and claims that it cares a lot about human rights,” Chu said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition