The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union has lodged a complaint that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to Singapore today will require his China Airlines (CAL) airplane’s crew to work overtime.
The union, which was established in September, yesterday said that the CAL crew would have to work 20 hours straight, a violation of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Citing articles 42 and 37, airlines are allowed to extend the work day of flight crews to 20 hours as long as they are allowed a rotating one-hour rest in-flight, it said.
The articles stipulate that employers can extend flight crew work hours to a full 24 hours after they have had a three-hour rest in a hotel after landing, the union said.
It is ludicrous that such violations are legal under the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法), because these regulations violate Article 32 of the Labor Standards Act, which state that employers cannot extend employees’ work hours beyond 12 hours per day, the union said.
Ma’s trip to Singapore to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) highlights the absurdity of the regulations and the exploitation of flight crews, the union said.
Overtime is inevitable for transoceanic flights, the union said, adding that it has repeatedly urged the Ministry of Labor to make the Labor Standards Act the guiding regulation for short and regional flights.
While the union said that it hoped its complaint would highlight how the ministry and the Civil Aeronautics Administration disregard the health of flight crews, CAL dismissed its allegations as groundless rumors.
Ma is scheduled to leave for Singapore at 6am and fly home tonight after a dinner with Xi.
Additional reporting by CNA
This story has been updated since it was first published.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS