Several civil groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to take measures to better protect private university teachers’ right to work.
At a press conference held in front of the ministry, Liou You-shine (劉侑學), a doctoral student from the Institute for Labor Research at National Chengchi University and a member of Youth Labor Union 95, urged the ministry to amend the Teacher’s Act (教師法), saying it includes many “abstract ethical” regulations that could be “manipulated” by universities to lay off teachers.
‘DISGRACEFUL’
Liu was referring to Article 14 of the act, which allows schools to fire a teacher whose teaching is considered “incompetent” or for behavior that is considered “disgraceful” to the institution.
However, the article does not define what constitutes incompetence or disgraceful behavior.
Liou’s call came in response to Nanhua University’s decision not to renew the contract of Ho De-fen (賀德芬), a professor who had taught at the school for four years.
The university ruled in late June not to renew Ho’s employment on the grounds that Ho had “not worked hard at her job, had violated her contract and did not spend enough time at the Department of International Studies.”
The school said Ho failed to show up at the campus for a minimum of four days each week.
LACK OF EVIDENCE
The ministry rejected the school’s decision on July 31, saying that the school did not have enough evidence to prove its allegations against Ho.
The case is pending further deliberation by the university’s education committee.
Chu Wei-li (朱維立), chief executive officer of the National Autonomous Laborers’ Federation, said the ministry should allow teachers at both public and private universities to organize labor unions.
The current Labor Union Law (工會法) bars any school employees from organizing labor unions.
Ho, who appealed to the ministry yesterday, said she would launch an organization for private university teachers as her first step to safeguard these teachers’ right to work.
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