Several medical labor rights groups yesterday urged the government not to amend the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) again, saying the law in its current form protects healthcare workers from overwork.
Original amendments to the act, promulgated on Dec. 23 last year, require that employees be given at least one fixed day off per week and at least 11 hours of rest time between shifts.
However, the Cabinet last week proposed conditionally easing the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” rule by allowing workers in certain industries to have two fixed days off every two weeks and at least eight hours of rest time between shifts in “exceptional circumstances,” which must be approved by a competent authority.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Lawmakers across party lines have expressed concern over the proposed changes, with some saying that exceptional circumstances might become the norm and that workers might be forced to work for 12 consecutive days before taking two days off.
Representatives from the Taiwan Healthcare Reform Foundation, Taiwan Nurses’ Union, Taipei City Hospital Labor Union, Chiayi Christian Hospital Labor Union, and Taiwan Occupational Safety and Health Link called on the Cabinet to withdraw the proposed amendment.
The “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy has gradually improved healthcare workers’ labor conditions, but now the government wants to amend the act again to satisfy employers, they said at the Legislative Yuan.
Healthcare workers are already overworked and the proposed amendment would only make their working conditions worse, they said, adding that without sufficient rest, workers are likely to provide low-quality treatment and care.
“A possible scenario is that a burnt-out worker who works 40 hours per week gets sick and is treated by healthcare practitioners who work 80 hours per week,” federation chief executive Joanne Liu (劉淑瓊) said.
Overworked healthcare practitioners would be at greater risk of making mistakes, Liu added.
Although nurses are included in the act, hospitals often ignore the regulation and force nurses to work for long hours and irregular shifts that include sudden notices asking them to take compulsory leave, Taiwan Nurses’ Union chairwoman Lu Zxy-yann (盧孳豔) said.
While there about 260,000 licensed nurses in the nation, only about 160,000 work as nurses in healthcare facilities, she said.
Any amendments should be aimed at solving staffing problems rather than loosening the standards that protect nurses’ working conditions, she said.
Overall unionization rate in the nation is only about 6.3 percent and it is only about 0.5 percent at healthcare facilities, so it would be difficult for workers to negotiate with their employers for their rights, as there is a clear imbalance of power between employers and employees, Lu said.
Taipei City Hospital Labor Union chairman Tsai Min-chang (蔡旻璋) said that hospital management were forced to solve a staff shortage problem because of the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy, but the proposed amendment would “turn the clock back” and sacrifice the safety of healthcare workers and patients.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
RSS