A benchmark ruling overturning fines against National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) for not paying student assistant labor insurance premiums drew protests from labor rights activists yesterday.
Taiwan Higher Education Union organization department director Lin Po-yi (林柏儀) said that the ruling had a “weak foundation” because the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) covers all part-time work regardless of the employer.
The Executive Yuan’s Petitions and Appeals Committee earlier this week overturned the fines levied against the school by the Ministry of Labor for paying labor insurance premiums for student assistants.
According to local media reports, the committee stated that there was a weak legal foundation for treating work by student assistants as labor, as well as a lack of supporting legal measures for making the switch.
The committee also ruled that treating the students as labor would violate “university autonomy” by interfering with university instruction.
The ruling is the latest strike in a long-standing battle between labor groups and universities over the status of student assistants in universities. While the Ministry of Labor last year ruled that student assistants should be included within the framework of the Labor Standards Act, guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education earlier this year allow universities to establish “study” assistantships, which are outside the scope of the law.
Lin said that the committee’s rule should be viewed only as an individual case, because the Ministry of Labor’s fine in the case had been based on the Labor Insurance Act (勞工保險條例).
There was already precedent for treating student assistants as labor based on 15 cases of unchallenged fines based on the Labor Standards Act, he said, adding that such fines could only be appealed in court.
He said that “supportive measures” would emerge naturally as soon as universities were forced to comply with the Labor Standards Act, while criticizing university claims that including students in national labor insurance would interfere with their autonomy.
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