The Labor Fund increased by NT$242.21 billion (US$7.4 billion) in March, bringing the fund’s total gains to NT$494.96 billion for the year to the end of March, the Ministry of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Funds said yesterday.
The bureau yesterday released its latest labor funds utilization performance report as of the end of March. The report showed that the overall asset under management of the Labor Funds was NT$6.42 trillion, which implies a yield of 8.3 percent.
The assets include the Labor Pension Fund at NT$4.18 trillion, with a yield of 8.22 percent, the Labor Retirement Fund of NT$1.18 trillion, with a yield of 10.11 percent; the Labor Insurance Fund of NT$994.1 billion, with a yield of 8.59 percent; the Employment Insurance Fund of NT$168.5 billion, with a yield of 1.86 percent; the Labor Occupational Accident Insurance Fund of NT$37 billion, with a yield of 0.41 percent; and Arrear Wage Payment Fund of NT$17.7 billion, with a yield of 4.63 percent.
Photo: CNA
Commenting on the performance of the fund in March, the bureau said that although the central bank raised rates on March 21, economic recovery was not impacted negatively and optimism drove the financial market high throughout the month.
Separately, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday posted on Facebook to mark International Workers’ Day. Chen thanked workers and said that their efforts allowed Taiwan to deliver a brilliant economic performance throughout last year, even as the world was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, despite a US-China trade conflict and disruptions to the supply chain, Taiwan’s economic growth rate from 2020 to last year was 3.5 percent, which was higher than the 2.83 percent during the previous four-year period from 2016 to 2019, he said.
“Meanwhile, to protect the livelihood of grassroots workers, the government has increased the basic wage year by year,” he said.
“Last year we passed the Minimum Wage Act (最低工資法) to establish a more complete review mechanism to protect the needs of grassroots workers,” he added.
The government had also gradually injected NT$267 billion into the Labor Pension Fund since 2020, he said, adding that the use of the funds would not affect the public negatively.
On the issue of workplace conditions, the government had passed three gender equality laws to strengthen employers’ awareness of and responsibility for prevention and control of workplace sexual harassment, he said.
Finally, the government had taken steps to strengthen childcare conditions by relaxing parental leave policies, allowing both parents greater flexibility in applying for childcare leave, he said.
In related news, workers yesterday held an annual Workers’ Day protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei.
Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions director Chiang Chien-hsing (江健興) said minimum salaries remained too low at NT$27,470.
“Presidential candidates across party lines previously said NT$30,000 would be too low, and President Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] once said that it was her dream to raise the minimum to at least NT$30,000,” he said.
Chiang also said that Workers’ Day is a paid holiday only for private-sector workers, while the military, civil servants and publicly employed teachers are required to work.
“They are also workers, so it is strange that they cannot have the day off,” he said.
The protesters presented five demands, consisting of an increase to the minimum salary, better protection of workers’ rights, improved collective bargaining and labor relations, better protection of the rights of retirees, and improved working conditions for medical personnel.
The protesters also presented 16 suggestions for legislative amendments.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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