The Taipei City Government yesterday gave a NT$300,000 fine to China Airlines for discriminating against shorter people with a height requirement for flight attendant applicants, and failing to change the recruitment advertisement after receiving warnings.
The airline violated the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) by running an advertisement on its Web site in April recruiting 92 flight attendants that required female flight attendants to be at least 160cm tall and males at least 170cm, Taipei City’s Department of Labor Affairs said.
The department convened an employment discrimination committee on Thursday to discuss the case and determined that the airline’s requirement constituted workplace discrimination and violated labor laws.
Chen Yeh-shin (陳業鑫), commissioner of the department, said the airline canceled the height restriction on May 21 during the first-round interviews and instead asked applicants to touch the overhead compartments as a test, but it failed to remove the height requirement in the ads.
“The airline would not violate the act by demanding interviewees to touch the overhead compartments as a requirement. Setting up a height requirement and denying some people the opportunity to apply for the positions is discrimination,” he said yesterday.
The company had defended the requirement by saying the crew had to be tall enough to reach the compartments.
Chen said the company would be given 30 days to file an appeal.
Yesterday’s case made the company the first airline to be fined for setting up a height requirement for flight attendants since the act was amended in 2007 to ban requirements concerning birthplace, height, weight, appearance and age.
The department yesterday also fined Seasons Hotel Group NT$100,000 for firing a middle-aged female worker in May last year for wearing glasses.
The hotel required all female workers to wear contact lenses, but did not require male employees to do so.
The worker, surnamed Su, filed a complaint with the department last year. Chen said the committee on Thursday determined that the hotel violated the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法) by setting up unfair requirements targeting female workers.
The hotel yesterday argued that Su was fired for her poor language ability, and said it would file an appeal.
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
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
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
RSS