The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Teacher Education Law (
"Whether teachers should be granted the right to strike has been controversial in Taiwan. Given the lack of consensus, we have decided not to allow it," said Ke Jeng-feng (柯正峰), executive secretary of the Ministry of Education's Education Research Committee.
Ke hailed the amendment for including a new chapter on the negotiation and mediation process, which teachers can use when labor disputes arise.
Ke made the remarks at a press conference after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The amendment, however, was criticized by the National Teachers' Association, a nationwide organization composed of teachers' associations around the country.
Liu Chin-hsu (劉欽旭), secretary-general of the association, said he suspected that the law was changed to hinder a proposed amendment to the Labor Union Law (工會法).
Activists in support of the right to strike for teachers have been pushing for a revision of Article Four of the Labor Union Law, which denies government employees, teachers and munitions industries the right to strike, but the amendment is still pending approval by legislature.
"Today we made progress in agreeing to exclude teachers from the article, but the Cabinet's amendment to the Teacher Education Law apparently runs counter to that," Liu said.
Liu said negotiations on the article, attended by lawmakers across party lines sitting on the legislature's Sanitation and Environment and Social Welfare committees, were held yesterday, and giving teachers the right to organize trade unions was accepted by all.
According to the consensus reached in the negotiation, teachers would be allowed to organize trade unions on condition that the right to strike be postponed for a year.
"We agreed to temporarily put off the right to strike to facilitate the amendment to the Trade Labor Law, but that doesn't mean the Cabinet should deprive teachers of their right to strike, as stipulated in the amendment to the Teacher Education Law," Liu said.
Liu said it was also regrettable that the amendment to the Teacher Education Law also denied teachers the right to organize trade unions and the right to collective bargaining, which, together with the right to strike, make up the three basic labor rights.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by