A coalition of labor rights groups accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of failing to deliver on her campaign promises to workers at a protest yesterday morning as Tsai marked the second anniversary of her inauguration.
About 40 protesters rallied outside the Presidential Office Building on Ketagalan Boulevard, holding placards and shouting “no more overwork.”
“We are here today because President Tsai promised workers that she would raise salaries, reduce work hours, encourage the organization of unions, protect non-regular employees, help young and elderly people find jobs, and take care of those with work-related injuries and illnesses,” Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions member Wei Yu-ling (魏豫綾) said. “However, in the past two years, she has fulfilled almost none of them.”
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
To justify its poor labor policies, the government has blamed migrant workers, saying that they are the reason the average monthly salary has not increased, she said, referring to a comment by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) on Monday that the nation’s real average wage last year would have been the highest in 18 years if migrant workers’ earnings were not included.
Wei called on the public to back two referendum proposals that labor groups are promoting.
While one aims to reinstate seven public holidays that the government scrapped in 2016, the other proposes to repeal controversial amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) that were passed in January.
Photo: CNA
Under the new law, which took effect on March 1, employees can work for up to 12 consecutive days with less rest time between shifts and less overtime pay.
Many protesters voted for Tsai in 2016, hoping that she would improve labor conditions, Labor Rights Association executive director Wang Chuan-ping (王娟萍) said.
“Tsai has failed to deliver on her campaign promises to workers and to make matters worse, she cut seven public holidays and watered down the labor law,” Wang said.
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
“In just two years, she has managed to roll labor conditions back 30 years,” she said.
More people should support the referendum proposals because labor rights affect not only workers, she said.
“Within the top 10 most overworked industries are the medical and transportation sectors,” she said, adding that when medical professionals and bus drivers are overworked, the quality of medical care and public safety are at stake.
For the referendums to be held alongside the Nov. 24 elections, they must gather 281,745 signatures by July 31, she added.
“The new Labor Standards Act was passed to meet the practical needs of industries. It ensures that workers are safe and have flexibility at work,” the Ministry of Labor said in a statement issued after the protest.
“The government adjusted the public holidays as a supplementary measure to the new five-day workweek,” it said.
Before the adjustment, private-sector employees had seven more public holidays than civil servants.
“People across Taiwan now have the same public holidays, preventing scheduling problems,” it said.
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS