Taipei City approves labor rights material for schools

By Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The Taipei City Government yesterday approved a motion to include learning materials it created on labor rights in civic education curricula for high-school students.

Taipei Department of Labor Commissioner Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) told a news conference that the material was jointly created by her department and the Taipei Department of Education.

A committee of 14 — comprised of union leaders from the banking, legal, media, education, beauty and electronics manufacturing sectors — reviewed the material based on their experience dealing with workers’ rights issues, Lai said.

She said the city government hopes to take the lead in providing high-school students with the knowledge they need to protect themselves against potential infringement of their rights they could encounter when working part-time or participating in internship programs.

The material complements the Ministry of Education’s high-school civic education curriculum, Lai said.

Starting this semester, which began this month, 10th graders at schools that have adopted the materials are to learn about the three basic workers’ rights — the right to form unions, negotiate with employers and protest — as well as the rights entitled to foreign, physically disabled or financially disadvantaged workers in the nation’s diverse and multicultural society, she said.

Also starting this semester, 11th graders will learn about workers’ rights issues, such as the implementation of the “six work days and one rest day” workweek policy and legislative discussions over the “one fixed day off, one flexible rest day,” as well as how the policies could affect people, she said.

Lai said that 39 teachers at 32 schools in Taipei have passed training programs to teach the material and that the city government hopes to boost the number of schools adopting the material to at least 36 one year from now.