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.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS