Labor groups took to the streets in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday, calling on President William Lai (賴清德) and his administration to improve working conditions for Taiwanese.
The demonstration was marked by demands for protection against workplace bullying — an issue that drew national attention after a Ministry of Labor staffer died by suicide in November last year, allegedly due to abuse by Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who headed the New Taipei City office of the Workforce Development Agency from 2023 to last year.
Hsieh was dismissed after receiving two major demerits.
Photo: CNA
In addition to anti-bullying protections, labor groups also called for shorter working hours, higher wages and a more stable labor supply, among other demands.
According to ministry data, Taiwanese workers continue to log the second-highest average annual working hours in Asia, behind only Singapore.
Tai Kuo-jung (戴國榮), president of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, said labor groups had been making similar demands for years, but the government had yet to respond.
Photo: Screen grab from the KMT’s Facebook page
“It’s no different from bullying workers from all walks of life when the government fails to act on these demands,” he said.
Separately, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) urged the government to reinstate seven former national holidays.
The KMT said that workers have been subject to low salaries, long hours and high pressure, and deprived of the right to rest since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government implemented the “one fixed day off, one flexible rest day off” policy in 2016.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan People’s Party
Taiwan has only 12 national holidays for workers to rest, while Japan has 16, South Korea has 15 and Hong Kong 17, it said, citing a survey that showed 56.7 percent of Taiwanese supported restoring the seven former national holidays.
The KMT would promote the “memorial day and festival act” to negotiate a reasonable arrangement of national holidays for workers, and safeguard labor safety and dignity via legislation, the party said.
The governing party should respond to popular will and return power to labor to build a worker-friendly Taiwan, it added.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday accused Lai of “breaking all the DPP’s promises about labor policies,” adding that it would continue to promote former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) labor proposals.
Lai and former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the DPP have stressed that the DPP cares about workers, but workers’ living quality does not seem to have improved, the TPP said.
The DPP government in 2016 amended the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and canceled seven national holidays in a way that increased work hours, it said.
Taiwan’s time at work has risen to the second-longest in Asia and sixth-longest globally over the past few years, while there are fewer holidays than in Japan, Germany, the UK or France, the TPP said.
Although cross-caucus negotiations on legislation regarding national holidays were held on Wednesday on the eve of Workers’ Day, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) and caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) were absent, and other DPP lawmakers could not present a proposition, it said.
The TPP has been consistent in promoting Ko’s labor policies by supporting the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) and the Act for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (中小企業發展條例) to pass the third reading, the party said.
Bills related to Ko’s other promises have entered legislative proceedings, too, including building a migrant-worker friendly environment, establishing family care leave, promoting a long-term care insurance bill, and implementing pension reform, it said.
The TPP would also introduce legislation to increase nurse-to-patient ratios, ensure minimal wages for couriers, and mandate authorities to provide legal and social resources for workplace bullying victims, the party added.
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