Following a settlement late last year with a cleaner over exploitation claims, online book retailer Books.com.tw has been fined NT$100,000 for failing to grant the woman annual leave in line with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
The Taipei Department of Labor determined the fine and sent a letter of notification to the company following an investigation that was launched on Dec. 26, Yeh Ssu-yen (葉思延), head of the department’s Labor Standards Division, said on Monday.
The investigation concluded that Books.com.tw had committed three breaches of regulations, Yeh said.
Photo courtesy of books.com.tw
While the company corrected its failure to present an employee with a personal data card and wage slips, it was unable to do the same for 21 years of missed annual leave, Yeh said.
The woman had worked at the Taipei-based company for more than 20 years, and failure to grant her annual leave constituted a severe breach of workers’ rights, he added.
The case was first reported on Dec. 23 in a post by attorney Chen Yu-hsin (陳又新), whom the woman had consulted.
Chen later posted details of the case on social media.
He accused the company of taking advantage of the fact the cleaner was illiterate to get her to sign a contract as a contract worker rather than a full-time employee, which she only realized after Books.com.tw told her it was terminating her contract.
Local media picked up the story on Dec. 24, reporting that Chen said the company had deprived the woman of 21 years of statutory employment rights, including healthcare coverage, labor insurance, a pension and a severance package as required by the Labor Standards Act.
Chen said Books.com.tw required the cleaner to strictly follow rules for employees on clocking in and out, work hours and which areas of the retailer’s Taipei office she needed to clean.
The same day, President Chain Store Corp, Books.com.tw’s parent company, announced that it had removed Chiang Cheng-hsin (江呈欣) as general manager of the online retailer with immediate effect and launched an internal investigation.
Later that day, Liu Wei-ting (劉韋廷), a lawyer hired by President Chain Store, announced that Books.com.tw had reached a confidential settlement with the cleaner.
The woman confirmed the settlement, which she said was calculated based on her 21 years of employment as a cleaner, including pension and labor insurance contributions, and severance pay.
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