More than 100 former Hualon Corp employees, along with about a dozen rights activists, clashed with police yesterday as they tried to force their way into the Ministry of Labor building in Taipei, demanding that the ministry live up to its promise to fight for payment of their pension.
“If [ministry] officials are not willing to come out to see us, then let’s go inside and pay them a visit,” said the protesters, who have been demonstrating outside the ministry’s offices since Thursday afternoon.
At the command of leader Lee Tsuei-ming (李翠明), the demonstrators rushed forward, trying to break the human wall formed by the police.
Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times
“Don’t hide in there. Come out and talk to us,” some in the crowd shouted.
Others said: “Don’t forget what you promised us,” “Keep your word,” and “Give us our money back,” as they pushed and shoved against the officers.
According to the group, there are more than 300 former Hualon employees who have worked for the company for decades and are entitled to an average retirement payout of NT$1 million (US$33,000) each. However, they have not been paid as their employer declared bankruptcy.
The organization said the government was at fault for failing to monitor Hualon to see if it had complied with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) requiring companies to keep a fund for retirement payouts. It said the government did not realize the group had no such fund until it declared bankruptcy.
While Hualon’s properties have been put to auction, little of the money will go to former employees as banks have priority claim among its long list of creditors.
“The last piece of Hualon property, its factory in Dayuan Township (大園), Taoyuan County, will soon be auctioned and could sell for about NT$2.4 billion,” Lee told reporters. “However, according to a complicated calculation based on legal provisions, each of us [former workers] would only receive 0.0029 percent of what we are owed, which is about NT$2,900.”
Lin Tsuei-ai (林翠藹), another retired Hualon employee, said that during previous negotiations, ministry officials promised that they would help the workers if they could find more money from Hualon.
“Now that we have found it, why is the ministry ignoring us?” she asked. “Last month, ministry officials also promised that they would treat our case as a special one, but now the last piece of Hualon property is going to be sold. Why aren’t officials doing anything to help use?”
The protesters have been asking to meet with ministry officials since 4pm on Thursday.
Lin Huan-chih (林煥智), a sophomore at Chang Jung Christian University, said that he was there to represent his father, who is also a retired Hualon employee.
“It’s Father’s Day today. My father could have enjoyed the day, but he could not, because he has to work today. That is why I am here on his behalf,” Lin said. “He is now working as a janitor after retiring from Hualon, because he did not get a penny of his pension after working for more than 20 years at [Hualon].”
Having failed to meet with ministry officials, the protesters vowed to take harsher action later this month.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the