The extraordinary legislative session should avoid further amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞工基準法) and Labor Insurance Act (勞工保險條例), protesters said yesterday outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
A march by dozens of people affiliated with the Workers’ Struggle Alliance and local labor confederations was led by three “clowns” wearing placards representing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) labor, pension and long-term care positions as part of a protest against the policies of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration.
“We are holding this protest because we hope that the Tsai administration will stop making U-turns based on what corporations think of issues,” Hsinchu County Confederation of Trade Unions president Chan Su-chen (詹素貞) said.
Photo: CNA
Others said that DPP legislators have introduced amendments to the Labor Standards Acts that would open a “back door” to overtime rules passed last year.
DPP plans to revise the Labor Insurance Act to cut benefits as part of broader pension reforms also drew criticism.
“Although committee review has not begun, the bill is fundamentally a continuation of the past Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] administration’s version, cutting benefits while raising contributions,” alliance member Chen Ming-chen (陳姳臻) said, calling on the DPP to consider moving away from the existing pension system by funding them directly from tax revenue.
Many of the nation’s numerous pension funds — including National Labor Insurance — are expected to go bankrupt in the next decade because of unbalanced contribution-benefit formulas.
Alliance member Hsu Chun-huai (許淳淮) said that long-term care plans force much of the burden of care onto families and foreign caregivers.
Hsu criticized proposals for sources of revenue.
“Instead of directly increasing taxes on corporations, the Tsai administration has instead chosen to raise real-estate and tobacco taxes, which are both extremely unstable,” he said. “In the case of the new tobacco tax, much of the burden will fall onto low-income earners, who make up the majority of smokers.”
New Taipei City Confederation of Trade Unions president Hung Ching-fu (洪清福) called for the swift passage of a law regulating contract labor to guarantee “equal pay for equal work” and give people the right to be hired as regular employees after a certain time.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai