More than 100 workers and people from labor-related groups held a rally in front of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) on the eve of Father’s Day yesterday morning to protest against what they say are inordinately long working hours.
Holding handmade signs with messages such as “I work such long hours that I can’t see my children when they’re awake” and “I’m so tired from work that I don’t have the energy to raise children,” protesters shouted: “Abolish article 84-1” and “Against working inordinately long hours.”
The protesters said an increasing number of deaths from overwork were occurring in Taiwan because of the amended Article 84-1 of the Labor Standards Law (勞工基準法).
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Article 84-1 states that the working conditions for certain jobs can be established through labor and capital negotiations, which excludes them from other articles that regulate maximum working hours, overtime hours and minimum holidays.
Most of the workers gathered yesterday were from the security sector and the electronics, electrical and information technology industries in Hsinchu.
The Hsinchu area’s Security Service Industry Trade Union chairperson Lo Chen-kun (羅振昆) said several employers did not hire enough security personnel, so much so that two security workers had to work 12-hour shifts instead of three workers doing eight-hour shifts.
Lo said that although the government had suggested that the maximum monthly working hours for the security sector be set at between 240 and 288 hours, such employees continued to work an average of more than 312 hours a month without overtime pay and with very few rest days.
A worker in his 40s surnamed Lo (羅), who has worked in private security for about a decade, said he worked an average of 12 to 15 hours per day, which meant he could only see his children once a week.
On one occasion, he worked 372 hours in one month, he said.
“Tomorrow is Father’s Day, but I won’t be happy at all,” he said. “Do you think I have any quality of life?”
Trade Union of the Electrical, Electronic and Information Technology Industries chairperson Liang Jui-fang (梁瑞芳) said the employers clearly stated in the labor contract that they applied what is known as the job responsibility system, under which no overtime pay is provided even if employees work inordinately long hours.
Many engineers died on their way to work or at home because of long working hours and excess stress, Liang said.
The protesters prayed for workers who have died from overwork and burned “ghost money” in front of the council’s headquarters. They then presented a pig liver, symbolizing a worker’s ailing liver from overwork, to CLA Department of Labor Standards section chief Huang Wei-shen (黃維深), along with their petition to demand better-protected working conditions.
The protesters shouted their demands as they paraded through the streets of Taipei.
In response, the council said in a press release that it would enforce stricter inspections on labor conditions.
The council also launched a special project, in collaboration with local governments, to conduct a nationwide large-scale inspection of about 10,000 cases, it said.
“Working conditions where employers are unwilling to pay overtime and where workers work inordinately long working hours will be prioritized by the Council when carrying out inspections, and violations can lead to fines of up to NT$30,000,” Huang said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods