The Council of Labor Affairs recently passed amendments to the Labor Disputes Law, outlawing strikes within certain industries, and imposing a 60-day "cooling-off period" on strikes that occur in industries that are for the most part state-run. The amendment also enlarges the CLA's arbitration powers and cancels articles in the existing law that demand authorities implement compulsory court arbitration in labor disputes. The amendments limit the collective power of workers in the above industries, and mean that the CLA no longer need concern itself with protecting the rights of workers.
The present Labor Disputes Law was passed in 1988, and has not been revised in the 11 years of its existence. The CLA now shamelessly is going about rolling back labor's last line of defense in the name of "protecting the public interest."
The use of the term "public interest" is nothing more than a smokescreen and has been widely abused in Taiwan. The government is busy undertaking privatization in the public interest, subjecting profitable public enterprises to the grindstone of privatization and shifting huge amounts of what were previously public assets into the pockets of individual capitalists. We have also witnessed capitalists pollute Taiwan's environment in the name of"public interest" while the economic benefits accrue to individuals and our "community of capitalists and bureaucrats" who sit on the side and proudly boast of Taiwan's "competitiveness."
The government has yet to muster more than a fleeting concern for the unemployment and lowered labor standards that privatization will bring workers in Taiwan. The CLA has not yet drafted any responses to these issues and has hitherto been unable to even implement small-scale workplace inspections in industrial zones. But this same rundown and understaffed CLA has suddenly metamorphosed into a brawny giant bearing down on workers to undercut their rights and bring added profit to capitalists under the banner of the "public interest."
The amendments to the law forbid workers in electricity, water, air traffic control and medical industries from striking if conciliation procedures between workers and management fails. In addition, workers in telecommunication, mass transportation, public sanitary, oil-refining and gas industries (most state-run) must enter a 60-day "cooling-off period" if a labor dispute occurs in those industries. This has the effect of breaking the cohesion of unions that have decided to strike, and also gives employers time to devise contingency plans if the strike goes through. It is clear from the draft revisions to the law that it especially targets unions of state-run enterprises, which are faced with an uncertain future because of privatization.
But the draft revisions to the Labor Disputes Law get even worse. The changes will give wide-ranging arbitration powers to the CLA to deal with "rights disputes," which the CLA claims makes up 99 percent of all labor disputes in Taiwan. The CLA claims that the old clause "forces workers to resort to costly and time-consuming legal proceedings." The CLA's revisions state that arbitrated decisions have the same weight as court rulings.
The changes proposed in the amendment to the Labor Disputes Law don't stop here, though. The CLA's version is an attempt to seriously limit workers' right to strike, while the increased arbitration powers of the CLA throw numerous obstacles in the way of workers who attempt to take collective action against their employer. It is in this manner that the government is attempting to divide workers in the state and private sectors and is busy tying the hands of state workers just as they face lowered working standards and unemployment as a result of privatization.
Cool Louder Web are managers of a Web site (http://ip-148-027.shu.edu.tw) dedicated to the discussion of social issues.
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