A labor group yesterday said Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) has been stalling on structural reforms, a day after he gave a retrospective on the first year of his tenure.
Speaking in a live-streamed video on YouTube, Hung said the ministry is amending the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) to counter workplace bullying and has proposed sick leave reform following the work-related death of an EVA Airways flight attendant.
The Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions said Hung had been reacting to public scandals and fixing political controversies, which did little to address the real challenges facing Taiwanese workers.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Although Hung cannot be said to have done nothing in the past year, the government must no longer delay in dealing with three major difficulties that workers face: excessive working hours, low wages and lack of retirement security, it said.
Hung told lawmakers that the Ministry of Labor had no responsibility over designating national holidays during legislative deliberations on authorizing additional holidays next year, which eventually passed in May, the group said.
Despite admitting to lawmakers that Taiwanese employees are overworked, Hung has not since taking office submitted any plan to the legislature to reduce the number of working days, it said.
The severity of overwork in the nation can be gleaned by the fact that more than 5,000 workers signed a petition to adopt a four-day workweek, the group said.
Citing the ministry’s statistics, it said that Taiwan had the fifth-longest annual work hours among the world’s developed nations last year.
The policy of allowing employers to hire an additional foreign worker for every NT$2,000 increase in wages to Taiwanese employees would further depress the average income, not increase it, the group said.
The ministry should lower the minimum membership requirement of unions from 30, as collective bargaining would be more effective in raising wages than giving employers perks, it said.
The labor pension contribution rate of 6 percent has not been adjusted in 20 years, resulting in anemic pensions for retired workers, the group said.
Retired Taiwanese on average receive just NT$6,000 in monthly pensions under the 2006 pension formula, it said, adding that the average total monthly pension for the average retired worker is less than NT$20,000.
If the government’s response to the plight of retirees is to tell workers to plan for their own retirement, then employees should have the right to opt out of state-run pension funds, the group said.
The ministry should commit to implementing reforms to ensure that retirees can survive on their pensions, it said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS