Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Seafood company owners accused of exploiting workers

Seafood company owners accused of exploiting workers

Staff writer, with CNA
Two owners of a seafood company in Pingtung County and three manpower brokers were indicted on Monday, after it was discovered that they had allegedly hired nine Indonesians to perform work not in line with their registered job description.
The company’s owners, only identified by their surnames, Chen (陳) and Chang (張), were also suspected of mistreating the Indonesian workers by deducting their wages, forcing them to work overtime and confiscating their passports, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The indictment said that to circumvent a 15 percent quota on the employment of foreign workers, Chen and Chang in 2013 hired via two brokerage agencies the nine Indonesian workers, purportedly to work onboard the Yi Jung No. 16 fishing boat.
Instead of working on the boat, the Indonesians were assigned to unload fish at the company factory, where they had to cut, clean and pack them.
Chen and Chang were also found to have kept the foreign workers’ passports, ordering them to work overtime every day and punishing them with the deduction of wages whenever they failed to return to their dormitory by 9pm, according to the indictment.
The prosecutors’ office said the Indonesians each worked at least 80 hours of overtime per month.
Apart from a monthly wage of NT$19,000, they each received only about NT$2,000 in overtime pay each month.
The nine workers received a wage that did not match the labor they performed, the prosecutors said.
Chen, Chang and three manpower brokers were indicted on a charge of causing public officials to make a false entry in a public document.
Chen and Chang were also charged with violating the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法).

Friday, December 25, 2015

Labor advocates storm Eric Chu’s campaign office

Labor advocates storm Eric Chu’s campaign office

HOLIDAY CUTS:Activists said that slashing holidays to make way for a new 40-hour workweek system would increase, not ease, the burden of workers

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Workers’ rights campaigners clash with police yesterday as they protest outside the election campaign headquarters of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu in Taipei.

Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

Dozens of workers’ advocates yesterday stormed the campaign headquarters of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) to protest a government decision to reduce the number of official holidays.
Members of Labor Struggle (工鬥) — a coalition of scores of workers’ groups formed in October to bring to the fore the issue of labor rights, which the groups believe has been largely ignored in the presidential race — took campaign headquarters staff by surprise yesterday morning when they stormed into the building and sprayed the walls with the slogan: “Return our holidays.”
After clashing with police, the protesters were evicted. The coalition accused the police of turning a blind eye to a KMT staff member kicking some activists and pulling their hair.
At least one protester was handcuffed and taken away by police.
The activists were railing against the Ministry of Labor’s amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法施行細則), announced on Dec. 9, changing the number of official holidays per year from 19 to 12 days.
The revisions were made following the legislature’s passage in May of the amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), capping the number of working hours to 40 every week, instead of 84 hours every two weeks, starting on Jan. 1.
The ministry has said that under the new system, workers would enjoy 13 more days off per year compared with the current system. As such, even after the number of holidays are reduced, workers would still have six more days off, it said.
However, the coalition says that passing a 40-hour workweek regulation does not guarantee that all workers will be able to enjoy two days off per week.
“As Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act still stipulates that ‘a worker shall have at least one regular day off every seven days,’ capitalists can make up for the two hours of work that would be cut every week by asking people to work overtime,” the group said after storming the Ministry of Labor offices on Tuesday last week.
The coalition yesterday said that while Chu has “constantly boasted that the two days off per week is a KMT policy achievement, it should be noted that a 40-hour workweek does not automatically equate to two days off per week.”
The policy is “a lie that disregards workers’ needs by justifying the seven-day-holiday cut with the new 40-hour workweek,” it said.
KMT spokesperson Lee Ming-hsien (李明賢) said the public “should not tolerate the actions of people who express their views via irrational and violent means.”
“Chu has long said that workers should have more days off. These people are barking up the wrong tree,” Lee said, adding that the protesters got inside the building by pretending they were visiting and hurt several volunteers.
The group said that “the true violence is slashing holidays when Taiwanese workers are already overworked” and rejecting negotiations with workers’ groups, leaving them with no choice but to use their bodies to fight for the rights of exploited workers.
“As KMT chairman and New Taipei City mayor, Chu can still draw a salary even when he takes a break to campaign for the presidency,” the group said.
“The KMT administration has slashed the workers’ holidays with an executive order to curry favor with capitalists before the elections,” it said.
“The KMT should be held accountable for workers’ missing days off,” the coalition said.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Firms warned as China lifts restrictions

Firms warned as China lifts restrictions

HIDDEN MOTIVE:Some academics said the move, which will allow businesses from 24 industries to operate in most of China, is a strategy to drain Taiwan’s talent and capital

By Tseng Wei-chen and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Former Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislator Hsu Chung-hsin speaks at an event on Sept. 4 last year.

Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

Academics yesterday urged caution toward Beijing’s relaxation of restrictions on Taiwan-based businesses, citing political and business risks, as well as its potential to drain Taiwan’s capital and talent.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Wednesday announced that many restrictions on the licensing of privately or individually owned Taiwanese businesses are to be lifted next year.
Previously, Chinese authorities only permitted Taiwanese-owned businesses from the retail and restaurant industries to operate in China, but the new rules are to permit privately owned businesses from 24 different industries, including advertising and packaging services, the TAO said.
The area in which Taiwanese businesses are allowed to operate will be drastically expanded from nine provinces and cities to almost all of China, excluding Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, as well as Inner Mongolia and Tibet, the TAO said, adding that Taiwanese businesses would also no longer be limited to having a maximum of 10 employees and 500m2 of business space.
National Cheng Kung University law professor Hsu Chun-hsin (許忠信), who is a former legislator of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, said the lifting of restrictions is a Chinese strategy to drain Taiwan’s small and medium businesses of capital and talent.
The policy is also an alternative to the trade in service and goods agreements, whose future had been called into question by the public backlash against it, Hsu said.
“While many will be tempted to start businesses in China, my experience as a lawmaker made me familiar with many cases of Taiwanese entrepreneurs who were blindsided by hostile takeovers and lost everything,” he said. “Private operators are no doubt even less protected than their predecessors.”
National Central University economics professor Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮) was also reserved about the announcement, saying: “The yielding of benefits is only superficial.”
Only the most well-connected Taiwanese corporations could gain direct access to customers in China, and those customers consist almost entirely of major Chinese corporations, he said, adding that the announcement is “an attempt to influence the coming election.”
Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) warned that the lifting of restrictions is a reaction to the stonewalling of the trade in service and goods agreements by the legislature, designed to drain Taiwan’s talent and capital while increasing dependence.
It is also possible that China intends to utilize Taiwanese capital and talent for its own “One Belt, One Road” project, Lai said.
“China is a highly volatile investment environment due to its justice system, tax codes and investment management practices,” he said, adding that Taiwanese business owners frequently lose their enterprises, or even their freedom, in China.
“The promotion of the market is the cause of Taiwan’s current economic woes … the government should take measures to prevent more of Taiwan’s technological advantages from falling into Chinese hands,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.

Washington confirms US$1.83bn in arms

Ed Note: No further evidence of whose camp Taiwan is in than this story about mostly obsolete military hardware the U.S. forced Taiwan to buy. "Taiwan will also need to work to meet its commitment to spend at least 3 percent of its annual gross domestic product on defense,” McCain said. Think about how many social programs and development of infrastructure is lost because of the gun pointed at Taiwan's head, not by China, but by the the first that stinks at the head. 


Washington confirms US$1.83bn in arms

NOTICE TO CONGRESS:The Obama administration’s authorization of the first major arms sale in four years came a year after Congress gave legislative approval

By William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Two Republic of China Navy ships made in the US are docked at the naval base in Keelung Harbor yesterday.

Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO / EPA

In a long-awaited announcement — widely criticized as too little too late — the US government on Wednesday said that it would sell US$1.83 billion in weaponry and equipment to Taiwan.
As expected, the deal did not include the systems that Taipei wanted most — F16C/D fighters and technical help with its indigenous diesel electric submarine program.
While most Washington analysts and members of the US Congress were quick to welcome the proposed sale there were also calls for more sales on a regular basis.
China’s strong objections to the sale were thought unlikely to cause a major disruption to Washington-Beijing relations.
The announcement of the sale — the first in four years — came in the form of a notification to Congress that the US Department of State had approved the sale.
The list of items includes two of the four FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates that were authorized by law for transfer a year ago, with refurbishment and upgrade costs of US$190 million.
It also includes 36 AAV-7 Assault Amphibious Vehicles at a cost of US$375 million; 13 MK 15 Phalanx Block 1B ship defense Close-in Weapon Systems, upgrade kits, ammunition and support, priced at US$416 million; 208 Javelin guided missiles, technical assistance, logistics and program support, which are priced at US$57 million; and 250 Block I-92F MANPAD Stinger missiles, related equipment and support, priced at US$217 million.
The list was considered modest, contained no surprises and left military experts mystified as to why it had taken US President Barack Obama’s administration four years to produce.
“It’s clear that the administration doesn’t want to upset mainland China by providing anything that can be seen as upsetting the balance of power in the region or appearing to be offensive,” US Naval Institute analyst Eric Wertheim said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain urged the White House to consider future requests for arms sales to Taiwan in a “more regularized” process to avoid extended periods in which a fear of upsetting the US-China relationship might harm Taiwan’s defense capabilities.
“For its part, Taiwan will also need to work to meet its commitment to spend at least 3 percent of its annual gross domestic product on defense,” McCain said.
The US-Taiwan Business Council said the timing of the announcement was a signal to China that Washington had equities in the peaceful transition of power in Taiwan and that it supported Taiwan’s democratic system.
The council also said the arms sales package raises serious questions as to whether it served as a response commensurate to the threat posed by China’s military.
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, the council’s president, said that while China had deployed new fighters, submarines and missiles since the last arms sale to Taiwan, the US had consistently refused to consider providing Taiwan access to similar weapons.
“The process for considering, assessing and processing Taiwan arms sales is broken,” Hammond-Chambers said.
“The contorted efforts to provide the minimum over an extended period has amounted to long delays and to the US providing only second-hand equipment and additional munitions for systems already in Taiwan’s inventory,” he said.
Heritage Foundation expert Dean Cheng said the latest package did not address the largest problems facing Taiwan’s national security — the eroding balance in the air and the aging of its submarine fleet.

“Without the ability to control the airspace over the island and a means of keeping the Chinese nervous about the subsurface threat on their navy, Taiwan’s defense posture will continue to erode,” he said.
The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, a Republican, said he was “deeply concerned” about administration delays that “needlessly dragged out this process.”
“We should handle arms transfers for Taiwan just as we would for any other close security partner,” Royce said.
US Representative Eliot Engel, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, agreed.
He said arms sales should be made on a regular basis.
“We cannot allow our relationship with the People’s Republic of China to come at the expense of our friendship with Taiwan,” he said.
The White House spokesperson Josh Earnest would not comment on why it had taken four years to process the package.
“There has been no change to our long-standing ‘one China’ policy that’s based on the three joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act,” he said.
State Department spokesperson John Kirby said the US made the decision based on an assessment of Taipei defense needs.
“The Chinese can react to this as they see fit. There is no need for it to have any derogatory effect on our relationship with China,” he said.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Taiwan labour laws: Beginning 2016

Taiwan labour laws: Two days off per week, maximum 40 working hours beginning 2016


TAIPEI - Beginning Jan. 1, 2016, the maximum allowable working hours will be cut to 40 per week with a mandatory two days off, officials of the Legislative Yuan said yesterday

An amendment to the Labor Standards Act was completed 
yesterday, cutting maximum working hours from the current 
84 every two weeks to 40 hours per week and no more than
 eight hours each day. Furthermore, two days off every week
 has been made mandatory, effective from Jan. 1 next year. 
Employers who violate the regulations could be punished with 
fines of between NT$20,000 (S$868) and NT$300,000
(S$13,000).

Further to the amendment, an extra four years is added to the length of time employers should keep employees' attendance records documented, making it five years in total. Moreover, employers are not allowed to turn down employee
 requests for attendance record copies. Violations may lead to fines of between NT$90,000 and NT$450,000.
According to the Taiwan Labor Front (TLF), a labour activist organisation, it is estimated that more than 3.4 million workers will benefit from the amendment. "This progress has long been awaited since the Labor Standards Act was last amended in 2000, adjusting maximum working hours to 84 hours," TLF representatives said yesterday. "However, this is only the first step in creating a reasonable working environment for the working class."
Business Groups Worry about Industrial Outsourcing
Chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC) Lin Por-fong () yesterday said that he supports the amendment as working 40 hours per week is currently the internationally recognised figure; however, he added that overtime hours should be extended to 60 per month.
The current Labor Standards Act restricts overtime work to 46 hours per month. It was proposed that the clause be amended to 54 hours per month, however, this was not discussed yesterday, legislators said.
"If the maximum allowable overtime working hours remain the same, labour-intensive industries may have to move out, resulting in fewer job openings and salary deductions in the nation, which is not good news for local workers at all," Lin said yesterday.
Lin Hui-ying, chairwoman of the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, (NASME) also said that smaller enterprises will not be able to handle high seasons or particular situations when clients request an urgent deadline if the clause remains the same. "The only way out for these enterprises will be to outsource labour work," she added.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/taiwan-labour-laws-two-days-week-maximum-40-working-hours-beginning-2016#sthash.N1dkTMBQ.dpuf

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Students boycott ‘outdated’ anthem

Students boycott ‘outdated’ anthem

PROPAGANDA PIECE:National Chengchi University’s anthem, written in the 1940's by a Chinese Nationalist Party member, has survived nine attempts to abolish it

By Wu Po-hsuan and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Chengchi University students attending a protest at the school yesterday to demand that the school anthem be abandoned because it contains the words “my party” and “revolution,” which they say are outdated.

Photo provided by Lin Pei-yu

National Chengchi University students yesterday boycotted the university’s controversial school anthem at the university’s Culture Cup choir competition, in which the school anthem is a required song.
The school anthem’s lyrics, panned by critics as a propaganda piece for “party-state ideology,” was written in the 1940s by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Chen Kuo-fu (陳國府) and contains passages such as: “Implementing the Three Principles of the People is our party’s mission,” and “Building the Republic of China is our party’s responsibility.”
At least four departmental choirs boycotted the school anthem by singing a vowel in lieu of certain lyrics, or by not singing at all. One department’s choir omitted the word “party” from its rendition of the anthem.
Several choirs held banners bearing the slogan, “Hey, give us back the school anthem we made,” referring to an alternative anthem that the university’s administration rejected.
“We call on the university to stop resisting change, and restore to the students the right to manage the competition and the right to choose the school anthem,” said Lin Pei-yu (林佩諭), deputy director of the Student Rights Department at the National Chengchi University Student Association, which had protested against the school anthem yesterday morning.
Event organizers had attempted to allow choirs to sing either the controversial school anthem, or the tentative new anthem, Pilot (領航), composed by a member of the university, Culture Cup convener Liu Chih-chia (劉芝嘉) said.
The school ultimately rejected the organizers’ proposal, citing purported “procedural errors,” Liu said, adding that she is “extremely displeased” with the decision and that she supports the boycott.
Although the university had referred a motion to abolish the school anthem’s lyrics to the university affairs board, those measures are not enough to satisfy the student organization, said Yang Tzu-hsien (楊子賢), spokesman for the Wildfire Front, the student group that initiated the boycott in October.
“We had hoped the school would respond positively to the demands of the university department choirs boycotting the school anthem [in a timely manner] by dealing with the issue in the university affairs board meeting before the Culture Cup event. However, it only now decides to pass the issue ‘to be addressed by the board,’ which is tantamount to ignoring the concerned members of the student body and faculty by pretending to do something about it,” Yang said.
During the past decade, the anthem survived nine attempts to abolish it by members of the school’s board of university affairs.
This story has been viewed 1485 times.

Students abandon curriculum meeting

Students abandon curriculum meeting

UNANIMOUS WITHDRAWAL:The ministry’s reluctance to improve data transparency shows that it is not serious about addressing students’ concerns, one student said

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Students who participated in an “expert consultation meeting” at National Taiwan Normal University yesterday protest outside the venue after withdrawing from the meeting in protest of what they said was the Ministry of Education’s attempt to downplay controversy.

Photo: Wu Po-hsuen, Taipei Times

Students who participated in a so-called “expert consultation meeting” yesterday to review issues surrounding controversial history curriculum changes unanimously withdrew from the meeting venue in protest of what they said was the Ministry of Education’s attempt to downplay the controversy.
The meeting, held at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, was arranged at the order of the Executive Yuan in compliance with an agreement reached among lawmakers during cross-caucus negotiations in early August in the wake of student-led protests against what they called China-centric history curriculum guidelines.
The meeting was attended by six students, who unanimously withdrew from the scene shortly after proceedings began.
Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science student Yu Teng-chieh (游騰傑) said the ministry delayed publishing the minutes taken during previous meetings to design and review the curriculum guidelines.
The ministry’s reluctance to improve data transparency shows that it is insincere about resolving the controversy surrounding the guidelines and is “waiting for the issue to blow over,” Yu said.
Protesters demanded that the ministry publish a roster of experts it contracted to address issues regarding the history guidelines.
Since the controversy erupted in July, the ministry has only disclosed the names of curriculum guidelines development committee members, who were responsible for compiling the guidelines, while information on academics involved in alterations and approval of guidelines are still unavailable.
In response, the ministry said the experts have reached a consensuses on seven of the 17 controversies surrounding the guidelines.
Draft proposals on how to better adjust and compile history curriculum guidelines and how to improve the review process are to be completed by March next year, the ministry said, adding that a roster of experts enlisted for the consultation meetings would be published shortly.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Li-chun’s (鄭麗君) office director, Yu Yi-jan (游毅然), said the ministry had asked academics on a task force to review curriculum guidelines and the curriculum approval committee whether they would like to be identified and most of them declined.
Yu Yi-jan said that the task force and the committee are held responsible by critics for the controversial guidelines, adding that academics in these two units probably did not want to be identified out of concern that it would provoke reproach.
Cheng, sitting on the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, has criticized the consultation meeting and said that it contravenes the Executive Yuan order.
As all resolutions made during expert consultation meetings must be forwarded to the approval committee, which has the right to decide whether to defer, the arrangement of such meetings does not help to improve an opaque decisionmaking process at all, she said.
This story has been viewed 1949 times.

IS releases Chinese-language recruitment song

Ed Note: If Obama mentioning Taiwan as allies in the fight against terrorism, then the U.S. CIA putting Taiwan's flag on a chart with other 'terror fighters,' now someone has come up with a phony IS recruitment song in Chinese to further expand the terror to the Far East. Is there a Japanese terror tune yet? Stay tuned.  

IS releases Chinese-language recruitment song

Staff writer, with CNA
Taiwanese academics have downplayed the impact of a recruitment drive in China launched by the Islamic State (IS) group, which they say is aimed at soliciting potential members to wage war against China.
The IS released a Chinese-language recruitment song, calling on potential members to “pick up weapons to rebel.”
The move came after the IS issued a declaration of the establishment of a new Islamic state in regions of Iraq and Syria that it now controls.
The declaration also showed the territory the IS plans to occupy in the next five years, which includes a significant area of Xinjiang.
National Chengchi University Institute of International Relations director Arthur Ding (丁樹範) said that China might be concerned about the IS’ moves, but Taiwan is a culturally diverse society and tends to be tolerant of most religions, making it less likely to come under attack from the IS than China.
In 1949, 82 percent of people living in Xinjiang were Uighurs. In the decades since, a government-sponsored influx of Han Chinese has changed the province’s ethnic makeup, and by 2010 Xinjiang’s 10 million Uighurs accounted for just 46.3 percent of the population, according to that year’s census.
A government crackdown on Islamic separatism and disputes over use of the region’s natural resources between Uighur and Han ethnic groups continues to deepen ethnic polarization in Xinjiang, stoking the fires of dissatisfaction among Uighurs who might pay attention to the recruitment message, Ding said.
National Taiwan University Department of Political Science associate professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民) said that Beijing’s move to dampen Islamic separatism was based on the knowledge that separatists are related to the IS and have become a potential target for recruitment.
According to media reports, 300 Chinese citizens who identify as Uighur’s have traveled to Israel and Syria to join the IS.
The IS group’s release of new jihadi songs in Chinese could signal its intention to propagandize its ideas to the Uighurs, Chen said.
There have been concerns that China could become a target of the IS after the Chinese national flag appeared in an IS propaganda video on Nov. 24 titled No Respite.
The Chinese national flag was one of 60 national flags, including Taiwan’s, that appeared in the video.
China has not made clear its stance on whether it would launch an attack against the IS, Chen said, but he predicted that Beijing would not change its existing position for fear of antagonizing the IS.
This story has been viewed 1072 times.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

NPP officials vow to advocate labor rights in legislature

NPP officials vow to advocate labor rights in legislature

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter
New Power Party (NPP) officials yesterday promised to promote labor rights if the party wins legislative seats, signing a white paper on labor issues with representatives of the Taiwan Labor Rights Promotion Association.
NPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) blasted the Judicial Yuan for its resistance to establishing a specialized labor dispute court, stating that there was a “high wall” preventing workers from seeking justice in courts.
“Why do we have a specialized court for intellectual property rights when we are unwilling to set one up for labor?” he asked, adding that the number of labor dispute cases was already several times greater than those for intellectual property.
He was accompanied by roughly 25 members of the association, a national union alliance.
The white paper also included promises to limit the use of temporary labor while guaranteeing contractual workers complete labor rights. The party also agreed to the passing of a minimum wage law in place of the current review system and to push for unions to be allowed to conduct joint strikes, as well as promising to support the calling of a national conference on pension reform.
Association president Wu Shi-che (吳世哲) said poor government policies had convinced his group that there was a need for “new energy” in the Legislative Yuan, but declined to give the NPP his full endorsement, adding that he would respect the decision of any member unions to encourage workers to support the party.
“We are still waiting expectantly to see how everyone responds to our policies in the coming days, including their specific promises and specific positions,” Huang said, adding that the association has yet to decide how to encourage its members to cast their ballots.
The NPP has not held a news conference with rival Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance, because alliance co-convener Fan Yun (范雲) has not responded to their demands.
Association vice president Chang Cheng-chieh (張正杰) said they would be willing to support any party who was willing to commit to their platform.
The alliance has also been striving to attract the labor vote, receiving endorsements from dozens of unions at a rally last weekend.
Huang declined to comment on differences between the NPP and the alliance’s labor policy platforms, saying that comparing the parties would not fit the NPP’s “style.”
This story has been viewed 697 times.