Dozens of university professors yesterday staged a sit-in outside the legislature throughout the day to protest against the pending Teachers Compensation Act (教師待遇條例), saying that the bill would slash wages for professors at private institutions by more than half.
The protesters said that Article 17 of the act would free private institutions from the obligation of providing monthly academic research fees to professors at the same level as professors at public universities.
They called the proposed bill the “29k Act,” in reference to their reduced wages.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The act is set to go under its second review today.
Assistant professors typically start on a base salary of NT$29,345 and academic research fees of NT$39,555, for a combined monthly wage of NT$68,990.
In an expression of defiance against the proposed bill, two professors from the Taiwan Higher Education Union (THEU) had their heads shaved.
The two professors — THEU Secretary-General Chen Cheng-liang (陳政亮), who teaches at Shih Hsin University, and Fu Jen University professor Ho Tung-hung (何東洪) — said that working conditions at private institutions have deteriorated as declining population growth means fewer students, and schools are seeking new ways to reduce expenses.
The controversial clause, which originally stipulated wages and bonuses for public-school professors also apply to private institutions, had its wording slightly changed to say that regulations “might apply,” Chen said.
He cautioned against a widening gap in resources between public and private institutions.
“If our legislature intends to support such an act, it would mean telling the general public that we intend to confer differential treatment for professors at public and private institutions,” THEU vice president Lin Chia-ho (林佳和) said.
Ministry of Education official Chang Chiu-yuan (張秋遠) denied the union’s allegations and said they were based on a misunderstanding of the proposed legislation.
He added that the act stipulates equal pay for professors at private and public institutions, with schools that violate the act facing fines of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000 per case.
The protesters said they plan to continue their protests today.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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