Former freeway toll workers and government officials late on Tuesday night reached a preliminary agreement on compensation principles, raising the possibility of an end to the laid-off workers’ almost three-year struggle.
“If any contract the government signs with a corporation causes unforeseeable damage to workers’ rights and interests, we have to shoulder appropriate responsibility,” Minister without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said yesterday at an Executive Yuan news conference.
Lin, along with Minister of Labor Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), helped lead government negotiations with the toll workers after they began an around-the-clock standing vigil outside the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters in Taipei on Monday to back demands the government present a specific plan to fulfill President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) election promise to address their grievances.
While the contract the government signed with Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC, 遠通電收) to establish a national electronic toll collection system contained provisions requiring the firm to provide jobs for laid-off toll collectors, the government overlooked the fact that most of them were women with families, making it difficult for them to accept new FETC jobs, he said, adding that many middle-aged workers had also encountered difficulties finding work on their own.
Since being laid off in 2013, hundreds of former toll workers have protested across the nation to demand new jobs, as well as compensation for lost pension and severance benefits as a result of years of government contracts that denied them the right to accrue seniority.
“This group of people had to deal with the pressure of taking care of their families without work, as well as psychological and physical injuries sustained during their struggle; injuries for which we will fulfil our responsibility to provide compensation,” Lin said.
The government would also provide compensation for expenses that workers had incurred as a result of their struggle, he said.
Kuo said that all laid-off toll workers — regardless of whether they participated in the self-help association — would be eligible for the special subsidies and compensation, with differing amounts available depending on their specific circumstances, with payments to be made before the next Lunar New Year.
FETC executives and stockholders had agreed to undertake part of the burden of paying worker’s claims, but it remained unclear how much funding the company would be willing to provide, he said.
“The Ministry of Labor, FETC and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications have to hold discussions about exactly how much funding we can squeeze out before we can determine how much will be paid out,” he said in response to reporters’ questions on whether the labor ministry had a preliminary estimate of expected payouts.
“We approve of the government’s willingness to respond positively to our demands,” Former Freeway Toll Collectors Self-Help Organization president Sun Hsiu-luan (孫秀鑾) said, confirming that the group had ended its protest outside the DPP’s headquarters.
She said that while the government had agreed to provide compensation for lost pension and severance benefits, specifics had yet to be determined, while no agreement had been reached on finding new work for former toll collectors who are still unemployed.
Approval of the agreement outline is still subject to a meeting of organization members, which is scheduled for today.
National Freeway Bureau Deputy Director-General Wu Mu-fu (吳木富) said that the bureau had done the best it could to help the former toll collectors based on the terms of its contract with the FETC and labor regulations.
Statistics from the bureau showed that 942 toll fee collectors lost their jobs after the freeway electronic toll collection (ETC) system was adopted in 2013.
About 500 of those workers chose to take a severance package and find jobs elsewhere, and about 400 accepted jobs arranged by the FETC, the bureau said.
As of yesterday, 150 former toll collectors were unemployed, with 10 of them declining to accept a severance package or jobs arranged by the FETC, it said.
As for comments by the Executive Yuan that 183 former workers remain unemployed, the bureau said the number should include those who accepted job offers from the FETC and then resigned.
Regarding the FETC’s promise to give each former worker a five-year guaranteed right of work and salaries, Wu said that it remains applicable to workers accepting jobs arranged by the FETC and its affiliated companies, but does not apply to those who found jobs by themselves.
The FETC said it has not stopped caring for the former workers, even though it has finished making job arrangements for them. The company added that it would continue assisting former workers with special needs on a case-by-case basis.
“We have yet to examine the details of the government’s special subsidy program for ex-toll fee collectors, but we will comply with the government’s policy after considering the huge financial losses that the company is experiencing at the moment, and the legal procedures and principles of corporate management,” the FETC said in a statement.
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