Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) and Jang Chyi-lu (張其祿) are to sponsor a food delivery workers’ bill of rights with the aim of passing the law within the year.
Although the delivery platform industry has existed in Taiwan for nearly a decade, wages and working conditions are not regulated by a separate law, Lai told a news conference on Friday.
The Ministry of Labor last year began working on regulations governing the labor rights of delivery drivers, but disappointingly has made little progress since then, she said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Citing a labor dispute between Uber and drivers in February dubbed the “NT$40 chaos,” Lai said that drivers have to work longer hours and travel farther to offset pay cuts due to company policies that were not announced or discussed.
Drivers are spending more time and money to work while facing increased risk of traffic accidents, she said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) and New Power Party Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) also support new legislation.
The number of people working as delivery drivers tripled from 45,000 in 2019 to 145,000 last year, even as drivers face opaque and unpredictable wage changes, Fan said.
The central government should not delay the creation of laws and regulations that protect delivery drivers, she said, adding that Taipei, New Taipei City, Taichung and Tainan have already passed ordinances to regulate the industry.
Food delivery cemented its place as an essential industry in Taiwanese society during the COVID-19 pandemic and delivery drivers need to be protected by some form of mandatory insurance, Wang said.
It is not appropriate that an industry is regulated by a myriad of local ordinances, but not national law, she said.
The changes made by delivery platforms to pay rates underscored the need for regulatory intervention to address the imbalanced relationship between employers and workers in the sector, she said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS