Labor laws should be amended to allow civil servants to unionize and protect the rights of employees to disconnect from work after hours, the Taipei-based Chinese Federation of Labor (CFL) said yesterday.
The federation issued the call following the report of a recent suicide by a worker surnamed Wu (吳) at the northern regional office of the Ministry of Labor’s Work Development Agency, allegedly following bullying by branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容).
Hsieh was also accused of sending work instructions to subordinates between 1am and 5am and demanding an immediate reply.
Photo: CNA
The federation told a news conference in Taipei yesterday that previously civil servants were only able to organize under the Civil Servant Association Act (公務人員協會法), which prevented them from asserting their labor rights.
The Labor Union Act (工會法) should be reviewed and amended, relaxing the minimum member requirement to form a union and ensuring that all workers have the right to organize, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike, it said.
The Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) should also be amended to include the right of workers to disconnect from work after hours, it added.
Employees have the right to refuse work-related communications outside of working hours, and supervisors should not treat employees unfavorably as a result, the federation said.
More than 20 countries and regions, including Spain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Canada and Australia, have already passed policies protecting workers’ rights to disconnect from work after hours, it added.
Taiwan should strive to be the first country in Asia to implement legislation protecting workers’ right to disconnect, the federation said.
The federation, the oldest and largest labor union in Taiwan, has developed a hotline for workers to report complaints at (04) 2265-5695, CFL secretary-general Wen Tsung-yu (?宗諭) said.
Separately, a group of public sector organizations held a newsconference outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, saying that 17 civil servants have died in work-related incidents this year, including firefighters, police, clerks and Wu.
The organizations demanded that civil servants be included in the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) and allowed to form unions.
They also demanded that workplace bullying prevention be further integrated into law by strengthening its definition and increasing external complaint channels.
Additional reporting by Chu
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