Dozens of labor activists led by the Labor Rights Association demonstrated in front of the Chinese National Federation of Industries yesterday to protest the group’s opposition to raising the minimum wage.
The protest came in response to a joint statement issued by six major industrial and commercial organizations last week calling for less government interference in the minimum wage issue. They said wages should be decided by market mechanisms and should not be subject to intervention.
The Council of Labor Affairs is scheduled to meet on Monday with representatives from business and labor groups and academics to discuss whether to adjust the minimum wage.
Labor activists said the business groups are only interested in advancing their own interests, even at the cost of exploiting workers.
The protesters wrote “raise the minimum wage, protect workers’ rights” on a large banner and shouted “Businesses don’t care for worker benefits,” “Business groups are inhuman” and “Protect laborers’ rights.”
“The six major business groups completely disregard the widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country,” said Tang Shu (唐曙), secretary general of the Labor Rights Association.
The Directorate-General of Budgeting, Accounting and Statistics said on Aug. 19 that the annual average disposable income of the top 20 percent of income-earning households was 6.34 times that of the bottom 20 percent last year, the biggest rich-poor gap since 2001.
“Business leaders used to say that the minimum wage could not be increased because the economy was bad and because cross-strait trade relations are not open enough,” Labor Rights Association executive director Wang Chuan-ping (王娟萍) said. “Well, now, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement has been signed, and the economy is getting better — these businesses are making money, but they’re not willing to share anything with their workers.”
The protesters also slammed business groups’ efforts to decouple the wages of foreign workers from minimum wage regulations.
About 1.2 million workers, including 170,000 foreign laborers, now receive the minimum wage of NT$17,280 per month.
New Immigrants’ Labor Rights Association secretary-general Lee Li-hua (李麗華) said many foreign laborers face serious exploitation.
“Most migrant workers and immigrants work long hours, do difficult jobs and often don’t get paid overtime,” Lee said. “Employers may play tricks to pay them less — for example, some have NT$1,000 deducted from their monthly salary for each day they take off.”
If employers are allowed to pay less than the minimum wage to foreign laborers, it could take away job opportunities from Taiwanese, she said.
The two business organizations did not respond directly to the protest, but sent someone to take a letter from the activists.
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