A worker union has accused Taipei Metro of violating procurement rules, resulting in cleaning staff receiving fewer days of paid leave than they should be legally entitled to under labor rights law.
The Taiwan Labor Dispatch Industry Union (台灣勞動派遣產業工會) held a press conference at the Taipei City Council today denouncing the city-run Taipei Metro as “leave thieves.”
Photo: CNA
According to the union, the public transportation provider flouts provisions in the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), resulting in cleaners who have worked at the company for 10 years only receiving three days of annual paid leave.
The press conference was jointly organized by the union's adviser Cheng Chung-jui (鄭中睿), the Confederation of Taipei Trade Unions Chair Chiu Yi-kan (邱奕淦), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Liu Tsai-wei (柳采葳) and Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Ho Meng-hua (何孟樺).
Cheng said that all 652 cleaners working at Taipei Metro's 117 stations were outsourced, as of September last year.
He said Taipei Metro uses a two-year contract model with cleaning companies, and whenever the contract changes hands, the workers are dismissed and must be rehired by the new contractor.
As a result, workers’ years of employment are reset each time, Cheng said, and their paid leave accrual restarts as well.
He noted that under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), an employee who has been working at a company for one year should receive seven days of annual leave, and those employed continuously for 10 years should receive 16 days of annual leave.
Cheng warned that without long-term contracts, many cleaners could face the situation of having worked for a decade or more but only receiving three days off annually.
The trade union adviser also accused the corporation of suppressing cleaners’ salaries by keeping them permanently at entry-level.
The outsourcing system means that “workers do not dare to resist to try to protect their rights and interests,” Cheng said, calling on the company to directly employ cleaners rather than outsource the positions.
He also demanded that Taipei Metro “immediately” audit and publicly disclose the employment duration of all outsourced cleaning staff.
In response, Chen Chung-Chu (陳忠助), director of the Station Operations Division at Taipei Metro, said the cleaning contracts include leave entitlements.
However, the metro official said the company would review its contracts to check for any discrepancies or noncompliance.
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