The May 1 Action Alliance on Monday announced that an appeal for a referendum on workers’ rights and wage increases are to be the focus of the Workers’ Day march in Taipei on Tuesday next week.
The annual march is to begin on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building and proceed to the Legislative Yuan a few blocks away, said the alliance, which is comprised of trade unions.
The focus of this year’s event is to be “opposition to overwork and demanding a referendum on higher wages and workers’ rights,” it said.
The alliance opposes this year’s revisions to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), which it has criticized as “backsliding” on workers’ rights.
The alliance is proposing holding a referendum so the “vicious revisions” can be overturned.
Labor Rights Referendum Alliance member Hsieh Yi-hung (謝毅弘) said efforts are being made to solicit endorsement of the proposed referendum, which would also call for a new law that regulates national holidays and returns the seven holidays that were canceled as part of the amended law.
The alliance hopes that 300,000 signatures backing the referendum can be collected before the end of August so that the referendum can be held at the same time as the nine-in-one local elections on Nov. 24, Hsieh said.
Calling for the monthly minimum wage to be raised from NT$22,000 to NT$28,000 over the next three years, Taiwan Higher Education Union researcher Chen Po-chien (陳柏謙) said that the nation experienced accumulated economic growth of more than 20 percent from 2007 to 2016.
During that period, the consumer price index rose 9.1 percent, but the earnings of private-sector workers only grew 8.3 percent.
“Taiwanese workers should be given a 10 percent wage increase every year over the next three years,” Chen said. “This is no more than a basic requirement.”
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS