The Ministry of Labor should intervene to prevent railway union workers from being disciplined for “taking a legal holiday” over the Lunar New Year, the Taiwan Railway Union said yesterday at a protest before a final meeting of the ministry’s adjudication board.
More than a dozen union members gathered outside the ministry’s headquarters, calling for the adjudication board to conduct a just review while condemning the ministry’s failure to address a shift schedule they consider illegal.
More than 300 union members “took a legal holiday” during the Lunar New Year this year to protest the Taiwan Railways Administration’s shift schedule, which they say compels employees to work long overtime hours while forestalling any regular holiday.
Photo: Huang Pang-ping, Taipei Times
After the holiday, 235 employees received a major demerit, while 6 received two minor demerits and 90 received one minor demerit. All workers’ cases are on hold while their appeals to the ministry’s adjudication board are heard.
The board should overturn the demerits on grounds that all workers have a legal right to take national holidays off, Taiwan Railway Union director Chou Kai (周鍇) said.
“If we do not have any right to reject overtime, we are slaves, not workers,” he said. “We realize that transportation demand peaks during the holidays, but we are not demanding that we be allowed to take all the days off, only that our right to rest on those days be respected.”
The 7,839 members of a competing railway union “took a legal holiday” over the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2003, but were not penalized, after then-Executive Yuan spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and the Council of Labor Affairs (which became the labor ministry) reaffirmed their right to take time off, Chou said, criticizing the Taiwan Railways Administration, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Executive Yuan for disciplining union members this time.
Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) has said that she would respect the transportation ministry’s handling of the case, so the ministry’s independent adjudication board is the union’s last hope for justice, he said.
Union president Wang Jieh (王傑) urged the labor ministry to begin fining the Taiwan Railways Administration for violations of new, stricter overtime rules after the policy’s grace period expires today, adding that the company has delayed implementing a new shift schedule until October because of a shortage of workers.
“There is no guarantee that the new shift schedule will be legal and the key question is whether the ministry will begin issuing fines in July, August and September — if it does not, we will be back,” he said.
While receiving the protesters’ petition, Department of Labor Relations Section Chief Chang Hung-nien (章鴻年) said he could not discuss the ongoing adjudication process.
Yesterday was the board’s final meeting on the case and decisions are usually published within a week, Chang said.
Additional reporting by Huang Pang-ping
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