Labor rights advocates yesterday renewed calls for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to fulfil campaign promises to pass a minimum-wage act and criticized review standards as a meeting of the Ministry of Labor’s annual Minimum Wage Review Committee approaches.
“The government cannot keep avoiding this issue, as it was one of its main labor policy promises and is crucial to Tsai’s vow to combat low wages,” Taiwan Labour Front secretary-general Son Yu-liam (孫友聯) said, adding that while the New Power Party (NPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucuses have proposed minimum-wage legislation, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) legislative caucus has yet to take action.
“What is meant by ‘basic’ has never been clearly defined,” Son said, adding that the government has often changed its calculation standards, at one point seeking to make determinations based on a formula centered around industrial production and economic growth.
The minimum wage was most recently raised to NT$21,009 per month following last year’s meeting, with this year’s to be held by the end of September, according to the provisions of the Regulations for the Deliberation of Basic Wage (基本工資審議辦法).
Chinese Culture University Department of Labor Relations associate professor Lee Chien-hung (李健鴻) said the passage of formal minimum-wage legislation is necessary because of the vague and non-binding nature of review standards.
“While the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) mandates the establishment of a minimum wage, it allows the government to set its own review standards, which means that none of the seven standards set under the Regulations for the Deliberation of Basic Wage are truly binding,” Lee said. “The result is endless controversy, as every year’s committee devolves into blatant haggling.”
Review standards that are in force include overall economic development, two price indices, average income and wages and overall employment conditions.
“It is clear that economic considerations have had a huge influence over minimum-wage adjustments, but this has failed to adhere to the fundamental principle that the minimum wage is supposed to benefit the weakest and most marginalized workers, so you cannot just focus on the economic situation when deciding whether to make economic adjustments,” Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions president Chuang Chueh-an (莊爵安) said, adding that strong economic growth should warrant an increase at this year’s meeting.
Worker compensation as a percentage of GDP fell sharply from 51 percent in 1992 to 44 percent in 2015, according to Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics figures, Chuang said, calling for the administrative function of the committee to be raised as part of any reform.
The committee is “consultative,” with motions subject to government veto, Lee said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS