Journalists said they were overworked and underpaid during the run-up to the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 29 last year.
A survey by the Media Workers United (MWU) found that many respondents said they worked an average of 14 hours per day, sometimes without a break for more than two weeks, and were not paid for overtime during the month before election day.
One reporter who covered the Taipei mayoral election for the print media and wished to be known only by her nickname Hsiao-mei (小梅) told a news conference in Taipei held to publicize the survey results that she often worked “13 to 15 hours per day for more than 10 days straight” in contravention of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), which stipulates that an employee can only work eight hours per day and should have at least one day off every seven days.
“[Taipei Department of Labor Director] Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶), please help me,” Hsiao-mei said.
“I attended campaign events and wrote stories during the day, and when I went home, I needed to listen to interviews on TV or on radio, and work on backup stories,” Hsiao-mei said.
“It was quite normal that I had no food during the day. Some candidates may feed themselves well, while leaving reporters to go hungry,” she said.
Another print reporter who wished to remain anonymous said he worked for 15 days straight during the campaign.
“Besides regular news events, we had to follow politicians on Facebook, the bulletin board system and political talk shows,” he said.
“Some of my colleagues would even go to campaign headquarters on their days off to keep in touch because they were so afraid of missing out on something, so basically they were working on their days off,” he said.
The survey of 50 media workers found that they worked an average of 14.38 hours per day in the month before the elections, and 98 percent said they were not paid overtime for the extra hours.
Moreover, 87 percent of the reporters had to cancel their holidays — either voluntarily or involuntarily — with one reporter saying that he had to work 28 days straight.
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