Group decries low pay for alternative military service

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Salaries for alternative military service in private firms should be adjusted to reflect market rates, labor advocates affiliated with the Taiwan Higher Education Union said yesterday.

“The government has the nerve to use low salaries to encourage industries to use these people and then say it is recruiting talent for them,” said Su Tzu-hsuan (蘇子軒), a member of the union’s student action committee. “This can only wreak havoc on the labor market and worsen youth poverty.”

While the Ministry of National Defense has announced plans to phase out mandatory military service in 2018, men born prior to 1994 will still be obligated to perform at least one year of alternative military service, with those in “technology” or “research” service subject to longer terms.

While ordinary alternative military service consists of work in government bureaus, technology and research alternative service allows for employment at universities and in corporations.

Employers pay a fixed fee to the National Conscription Agency, which in turn sets and pays initial wages.

The National Conscription Agency’s wages for technology service are far below prevailing market rates, including for those with a bachelor’s degree, labor advocates said.

“If you are serious about building an all-volunteer military, you cannot keep holding on to this useful and cheap labor,” youth action committee member Tzeng Fu-chuan (曾福全) said. “The government should not be in the business of using its military personnel to profit private corporations.”

While corporations pay between NT$28,000 and NT$38,000 a month to employ technology service members, these are still substantially lower than the average wage when labor insurance and other mandatory expenses are taken into account, advocates said.

While alternative service members are allowed to negotiate their salary after an initial period, restrictions on transferring reduce their bargaining power, Tzeng said.

“They cannot leave because if they do, their time served will be discounted,” he said.

Alternative service personnel also lack proper channels for appeal in the event of an accident or labor dispute, he said.

The advocates called for Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) regulations to be fully applied to alternative service members and full work-based compensation, as well as the gradual abolition of both the service and mandatory military training that is to replace conscription.