Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) labor union yesterday criticized the company for excluding employees on parental leave from the company’s annual salary increase plans, which it said has caused some experienced employees to be paid less than new staff.
About 30 union members yesterday morning protested outside the Cathay Financial Center on Songren Road in Taipei, where the company was scheduled to hold a shareholders’ meeting.
Over the past three years, the company has increased salaries for all nonmanagerial employees, except those who happened to be away on parental leave, union secretary Kao Juo-hsiang (高若想) said.
Photo: CNA
A total of 28 employees — most of them mothers of young children who have worked at the company for many years — have received less or no raise due to having been on unpaid parental leave the year before each general increase, the first of which was “completely unexpected, as the company had not done so for more than a decade,” she said.
The company tried to justify its decision to cut their raises by saying that it would have been unfair to those who had not been away on leave, Kao said.
To prove it wrong, the union has launched a petition in the company backing the parents who received less or no raises and was able to collect about 500 signatures in just a week, she said.
“Most of the employees that support the petition have not been on parental leave. The company should take our request more seriously and stop trying to divide us,” she said.
A female conductor surnamed Wang (汪) said she was told by the company that she did not receive a raise because she did not contribute to the company while on leave, and that by applying for parental leave she had “chosen family over work.”
“I joined the company before the first high-speed rail train even began running. The company has had some financial problems and because of that I have not had a raise for about six years. When it finally decided to raise salaries across the board, I was left out because I was on parental leave,” she said, adding that she felt as if she has been punished for having children.
Others that joined the company at about the same time as she did are now paid NT$1,500 to NT$2,000 more than her, she said.
“The union filed for labor arbitration late last year, hoping to resolve the dispute in a peaceful and rational manner, but negotiations failed due to the company’s unwillingness to cooperate,” Kao said.
According to the company’s policy, employees on unpaid parental leave enjoy better treatment than those on other types of unpaid leave, THSRC spokeswoman Chung Rae-fang (鍾蕊芳) said.
In the past three years, nonmanagerial employees who worked a minimum of 183 days during the prior year all received full raises, she said.
Those who worked less than 183 days due to being on parental leave received pro rata raises if they had worked during the prior year, she said.
The policy does not contravene the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法), because men and women are treated equally if they apply for parental leave, Chung said.
“The company will consider any suggestions that are reasonable and review its policies,” she added.
Nearly 100 THSRC employees are rumoured to be planning to refuse to work during the Dragon Boat Festival to fight for their right to enjoy public holidays, but Chung said the company is communicating with staff to ensure quality service during the holiday.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS