Union leaders at Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) said they are planning a demonstration seeking a better pension scheme and to have Saturdays as days off, when they take part in the May 1 Workers’ Day rally.
Chunghwa Post has 1,296 post offices across Taiwan and 275 of those are open on Saturdays despite a dwindling number of customers, Taiwan Postal Industry Union chairman Liao Nai-chen (廖迺辰) said.
A survey showed that 80 percent of union members support closing post offices on Saturdays or getting overtime pay for working on that day, Liao said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“For maintaining operations during Saturdays, our union would demand a pay of 1.33 times the regular wage and 1.67 times for overtime hours,” Liao said, adding that it would incur an additional postal personnel expense of NT$200 million (US$6.15 million) each year.
The union would also raise other demands at the rally, including a yearly performance bonus being added to the calculation of pensions, freedom of speech for postal workers, the end of regional wage and work condition disparity, stop grouping employees into smaller units and sending them to other jurisdictions, and zero tolerance for workplace bullying and sexual harassment, Liao said.
A postal worker had once won a litigation on performance bonus linked to pension, which showed that the justice system agrees that yearly performance bonuses should be considered as part of a worker’s wage, but Chunghwa Post took its interpretation from the Cabinet and says that the wage structure does not include a performance bonus, so it is not included in the pension calculation, Liao said.
“Management has also started grouping employees into smaller units and transferring them to different administration areas. That has resulted in postal delivery personnel having to work longer hours outside and have led to stress and heat-related illnesses,” Liao said.
Chunghwa Post in a statement said that offices are open on Saturdays to serve people who could only come in during the weekend.
“It is an entirely different customer base from those who use the postal office on weekdays. Maintaining the current policy would also relieve the burden on staff during peak hours on regular days, and has been endorsed and supported by people who regularly use postal services,” it said.
“All work units and offices have talked with employees before undertaking the new grouping arrangement for new jurisdictions. We are waiting until all group members become familiar with their new areas, neighborhoods and postal addresses before we begin,” the statement said.
“Supervisors are providing guidance for mail delivery, such as the best ways to go through neighborhoods and how to avoid overlapping routes. However, some regions have a staff shortage, so we will assess the situation at each jurisdiction to rectify the problem and make improvements,” it added.
“The Cabinet and the Ministry of Labor have verified that bonuses based on job performance are not part of postal workers’ wages. It is the same position based on the court ruling on cases concerning this issue, so performance bonus money would not be calculated into pensions,” the release said.
“Regarding bullying and harassment on the job, Chunghwa Post has always had a zero tolerance policy, and mechanisms are in place for reporting incidents and providing assistance in the aftermath,” it added.
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