The Taiwan Higher Education Union today called for better working conditions for Chinese-language teachers at universities, saying they suffer from reduced labor rights, fewer legal protections and low wages.
Chinese-language teachers are often “treated like disposable chopsticks,” former CTBC University of Technology vice president Yu Po-chuan (余伯泉) told a news conference in Taipei.
Institutions of higher education in Taiwan have been running Chinese-language programs for more than a decade, with more than 60 centers now in operation, union organization department director Lin Po-yi (林柏儀) said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Higher Education Union
However, some national universities continue to use three-month contracts to employ teachers, renewing them based on course demand in contravention of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Lin said.
The schools justify the short-term contracts by saying that course duration is usually just three months, but once contracts end, teachers are often left unemployed with no severance pay or compensation, he said.
Teachers are also forced to take unpaid leave between semesters and have no accumulated paid annual leave, and in some cases, schools fail to make the required pension contributions, the union said.
However, Mandarin education centers have steady demand throughout the year and many teachers remain at a school for several years, Lin added.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some schools universally canceled contracts, leading to widespread unemployment for Chinese-language teachers and affecting the labor rights of thousands, the union said.
Some schools even refused to issue proof of involuntary termination as required by law, preventing teachers from applying for unemployment benefits, it said.
Thanks to continuous advocacy by the union, the Ministry of Labor last year officially recognized Mandarin teachers under the Labor Standards Act, Yu said.
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Education sent notices to universities instructing them to guarantee legal rights for their teachers, he said.
The labor ministry additionally compiled detailed responses to frequently asked questions from universities for their reference, and required universities to report back on how they would implement these labor protections, he added.
However, many universities continue to hire both full-time and part-time teachers as “non-staff personnel,” excluding them from protections guaranteed in the Teachers' Act (教師法) and Labor Standards Act, Lin said.
The union has received multiple complaints from Chinese-language teachers that universities are continuing to break the law, despite instructions from the ministries, union secretary-general Chang Chih-lun (張志綸) said.
Teachers who questioned illegal practices, such as short, fixed-term contracts, suffered retaliation such as reduced classes and lost income, he said.
The main issue is implementation of labor protections, not applicability, as teachers are already covered under law, he added.
The union vowed to file complaints one by one against universities that continue to breach the Labor Standards Act to protect teachers’ labor rights and dignity.
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