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.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS