About 500 Taiwan Postal Workers’ Union members protested outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei yesterday, demanding that employees of Chunghwa Post Co doing the same jobs be paid equally.
The workers then marched to the Executive Yuan to submit a petition.
The workers called for the rates that Chunghwa Post pays employees to be more flexible and that they not be based on its revenue.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The rates should be based on the company’s annual statutory surplus reserve, they said, adding that they should not be limited by the average surplus of the previous three years.
When Chunghwa Post was reorganized into a government-owned corporation in 2003, civil servants employed at the post office were deemed “transferred personnel,” while those who were hired after the change are considered “hierarchical personnel.”
The company employs about 11,000 transferred personnel and 14,000 hierarchical personnel, the union said.
The work subsidy for the two groups are different, despite doing similar work, it said.
Hierarchical employees should be treated the same as transferred workers, from starting salaries and bonuses to paid leave, the protesters said, adding that employees should be paid subsidies and bonuses monthly.
“The Executive Yuan should ask Chunghwa Post to deliver the best retirement plans for transferred staff,” the protesters said. “That way, it can take good care of senior employees and use personnel funds to boost the salaries of hierarchical staff as well.”
The government should not sacrifice the physical and mental health of postal workers by letting Chunghwa Post bear the responsibility of sustaining financial losses or not being able to deliver a statuary surplus reserve, they said.
“We have about 500 people here, which means we are not alone,” union deputy manager Chen Guang-chih (陳廣志) said.
“The company has been operating with two salary systems since it became a state-run company,” Chen said. “We would be waiting for things to happen if we did not protest.”
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