Sunday, March 26, 2017

Jobless rate up on holiday resignations

Jobless rate up on holiday resignations

NEW YEAR BLIP:Discontented workers coupled with people who lost their jobs to temporary hiring raised the unemployment rate by 0.07 percentage points last month

By Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter
The unemployment rate rose to 3.85 percent last month, ending five consecutive months of decline, as people quit their jobs to look for better positions and firms shed temporary workers following the Lunar New Year holiday season, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The unemployment figure is likely to edge down again this month in the absence of an economic surprise, due to a stable recovery that has led firms to increase their workforce, the statistics agency said.
“It is common for people unhappy with their jobs to quit after the Lunar New Year holiday,” DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) told a media briefing.
If they find new positions, the unemployment rate would drop, Pan said.
Discontented workers coupled with people who lost jobs to temporary hiring raised the unemployment rate by 0.07 percentage points from a month earlier, Pan said.
Compared with a year earlier, the reading fell 0.1 percentage points and stood at 3.83 percent after seasonal adjustments, he said.
There were about 453,000 unemployed people in the nation last month, an increase of 8,000 from a month earlier, the agency’s report showed.
An extra 1,000 people lost their jobs to business downsizing or closures, while the number of first-time jobseekers dropped by 1,000, it said.
By education breakdown, the jobless rate was highest among people who have a university degree or higher at 4.73 percent, followed by college graduates at 4.14 percent, the report said.
The unemployment rate was 3.85 percent for people with a high-school education and 3.03 percent for people who only finished junior high school.
By demographic breakdown, the jobless rate was highest among people aged 15 to 24 at 12.18 percent, followed by those aged between 25 and 29 at 6.71 percent. People aged 45 and older had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.07 percent, the report showed.
In related news, the total average wage including regular pay, bonuses, overtime and other compensation in January was NT$93,144 (US$3,054), the statistics agency said in a separate report.
It is a tradition for companies to distribute bonuses ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and workers this year had further benefited from monetary compensation for unused leave in line with the new labor law.
Headline take-home wages averaged NT$39,679 in January, representing a 1.37 percent increase from a year earlier, as the nation’s economy improved, the report said.
However, inflation of 2.25 percent during the same period more than wiped out the increase and eroded real regular wages by 0.86 percent, it said.

Lin vexed by complaints over labor changes

Lin vexed by complaints over labor changes

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Premier Lin Chuan gestures during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times

Employers would not have had any problems implementing the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy if they had been complying with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) all along, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus and Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) on Thursday said that the central government should take responsibility for the public’s complaints about the new labor policy and asked for more “flexibility” for employers.
The policy has significantly increased costs in the ready-mixed concrete industry, while relations between workers and employers have deteriorated, Taiwan Ready-Mixed Concrete Association chairperson Chu Jui-lu (朱瑞爐) said.
“Many businesses might fold this year. We might witness a wave of bankruptcies,” Chu told the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
Lin said that many businesses have been stoking tensions by mentioning problems related to general management, many of which were not caused by the policy, “but due to that [the businesses] did not closely follow the Labor Standards Act in the past.”
The government’s follow-up to the act’s implementation and its examination of the problems reportedly caused by the policy has shown that the problems mostly arose from lax execution of the labor law prior to its amendment, the premier said, adding that the government would continue to monitor the effects of the policy and communicate with the public.
The Ministry of Labor yesterday announced that the logistics industry will be allowed flexibility when applying Article 30, Paragraph 3 of the act, which stipulates that employers, with prior consent from the relevant unions, can distribute the regular working hours over eight weeks, provided that the regular working time does not exceed eight hours per day and the total number of working hours do not exceed 48 hours per week.
It would collect opinions regarding the measure, it said.
Asked about the proposed relaxation and whether other industries would be given similar flexibility, the premier said he would respect the ministry’s decision.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said the government should set “a final tone” instead of using executive orders to relax prohibitions that it established, “which leaves everyone baffled.”

Vote buying in farmers’ associations investigated

Vote buying in farmers’ associations investigated

By Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter
Authorities yesterday conducted searches and detained suspects in several cities and counties in investigations into allegations of vote-buying ahead of elections at regional farmers’ associations, with New Taipei City seeing the most raids.
Officials at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said they received a tip-off that a candidate, surnamed Chuang (莊), who is running for the chairmanship of an association in Linkou District (林口), and his relatives, paid NT$200,000 per ballot to eligible voters.
Prosecutor Chen Hsiang-chu (陳香君) led police and investigators as they conducted raids at residences and offices belonging to Chuang and other suspects, detaining a total of 70 people for questioning on suspicion of violating the Farmers Association Act (農會法).
Elections of farmers association’s representatives, governing board and supervisors, who are elected every four years, were held last month across the nation.
The vote-buying allegations are related to the elections of association chairman, secretary-general and other top positions, which in some regions were held last weekend, while the rest are to take place this weekend.
Investigations into alleged vote-buying in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) saw prosecutors carry out searches and summon five suspects for questioning, four of whom won posts in last month’s elections.
All five were released after posting bails between NT$100,000 and NT$50,000.
In Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池), prosecutors questioned 28 suspects this week, of whom eight had allegedly admitted to receiving NT$100,000 each from an association executive, surnamed Liu (劉), who won the chairmanship in last weekend’s election.
Liu and his father, both suspected of bribing voters, were released on Wednesday after posting bail of NT$1 million each, while another suspect was released on NT$500,000 bail.
Another investigation is under way Taitung County’s Guanshan Township (關山), where a governing board member, surnamed Chen (陳), of the local association allegedly paid several voters up to NT$10,000 and took them to a KTV parlor in exchange for their support to a friend of his who is running for the secretary-general.
In related news, judicial officials in Hualien County said they received reports that several candidates had prepared millions of New Taiwan dollars in cash to bribe eligible voters in an election for local fishermen’s associations scheduled to be held this weekend.
Hualien County prosecutors yesterday summoned about a dozen executives and governing board members from a local fishermen’s association for questioning.

Nantou commissioner criticizes labor changes

Nantou commissioner criticizes labor changes

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff Reporter

Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen, second right, yesterday criticizes the five-day workweek policy at a news conference held by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in Taipei.

Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) yesterday criticized the amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), saying he was being blamed by business owners for the changes implemented by the central government.
Lin traveled to Taipei to attend a news conference held by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus and criticized the government for “passing the buck” to local governments when it came to dealing with the amendments’ repercussions.
The commissioner said his proposal to stop implementing the “evil law” of “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day,” which he claims has made the public and businesses suffer, was a reflection of what the grassroots wanted.
“The Ministry of Labor has three inspectors in Nantou and they refer any breaches they find to the county government so that it can mete out penalties. Business owners do not blame President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) or Premier Lin Chuan (林全), but me,” Lin Ming-chen said, adding that he has been scolded by factory owners several times and therefore had to stand up to express his “true feelings.”
Many in the manufacturing industry have complained to him that they were afraid of accepting orders for fear of delayed shipments, Lin Ming-chen said.
The tourism industry, with the number of tourists already reduced to one-third of its peak, would suffer even more, he added.
KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) criticized the new policy for lacking flexibility and called on the Democratic Progressive Party government to launch an amendment process.
KMT legislators Lu Yu-lin (呂玉玲) and Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said “nobody benefits from the policy” and the government, which forced through the amendments without considering measures to deal with possible disputes, should be held accountable.
Meanwhile, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said it is “absurd” to see the KMT protest the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy and accuse it of hurting businesses, as the former ruling party had proposed implementing “two fixed days off” each week and even occupied the Legislative Yuan’s committee podium to promote its proposal.
“The KMT is contradicting what it had stood for and is merely parroting business leaders’ complaints about the new labor law, which shows that the ‘pro-labor’ slogans it championed were purely a political stunt,” the SDP said.

Largan to pay workers NT$4.095bn in bonuses

Largan to pay workers NT$4.095bn in bonuses

SHARP RIVALRY?A newspaper reported that a unit of Japan’s Sharp Corp is planning to expand production to supply camera lenses to Apple Inc for new iPhones

Staff writer, with CNA
Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc, is to award its employees a large annual bonus on the back of the company’s strong bottom line.
A board meeting approved a proposal to issue a total of NT$4.095 billion (US$132.2 million) in annual bonuses to 4,600 employees, meaning each would receive almost NT$900,000 on average.
The decision makes Largan one of the most generous employers in the nation after it posted earnings per share (EPS) of NT$169.40 for last year, the highest of any listed company in Taiwan.
Last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, announced it would issue an average of NT$1.07 million in bonuses after posting the company’s highest-ever annual net profit of NT$334.25 billion and record-high sales of NT$947.94 billion for last year.
Largan’s average employee bonus was less than the NT$950,000 last year, as its EPS for last year was less than the NT$180.08 in 2015, but the bonus remains among the highest nationwide at a time when Taiwan is experiencing long-term wage stagnation.
Last year, Largan’s net income fell about 6 percent from a year earlier to NT$22.72 billion on slower global demand.
The company is scheduled to issue employee bonuses in September.
Due to the lower earnings for last year, Largan said compensation paid to its directors and supervisors would fall from NT$3.27 billion last year to NT$3.07 billion this year.
Largan has benefited from its lead over competitors in high-end camera lens production, in particular dual camera lenses.
As more international smartphone brands, including Apple and Chinese vendors, adopt dual camera lenses in their devices, the market widely expects Largan’s profits to improve this year.
A US-based brokerage raised its target price on Largan shares from NT$5,000 to NT$5,700, the highest among foreign brokerages tracking the stock.
On Monday, Largan closed up 3.2 percent at NT$4,650 to remain the most expensive stock on the local market.
However, local media cited the Nikkei Shimbun as reporting yesterday that Largan is likely to be challenged by Japan’s Sharp Corp — in which Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) owns a 66 percent stake — as the Japanese firm’s subsidiary Kantatsu Co is planning to expand smartphone camera lens production capacity in China.
The report said that Kantatsu’s new production lines, which are to be based in Jiangsu Province, are scheduled to start operations next year with the aim of supplying smartphone camera lenses to Apple for new iPhones.
Sharp has raised its stake in Kantatsu from 18 percent to 44 percent since mid-January.

Nearly two-thirds of workers want to set up own businesses: job bank poll

Nearly two-thirds of workers want to set up own businesses: job bank poll

Staff writer with CNA
Almost 70 percent of employees aged 21 to 40 want to set up their own businesses, a survey released yesterday by 1111 Job Bank showed.
The online job bank said that 33.1 percent of employees in the 21-to-30 age bracket said they intend to found their own business, while about 35 percent of those in the 31-to-40 age group are considering such a move.
The survey showed that many employees have been frustrated by persistently low wages and are keen to find a way to beat the income doldrums.
Among respondents in the 21-to-30 age bracket who said they want to have their own business, 67 percent are university graduates, higher than the 62.8 percent for all age groups polled.
1111 Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said that employees, in particular first-time jobseekers, face an unfriendly job market in Taiwan, where low wages persist and promotion opportunities are few.
The poll came after Microbio Co (中天生技) chairman Lu Kung-ming (路孔明) last week said that the average starting salary for new graduates has changed little over the past 35 years, which he said poses a threat to the nation’s development.
A survey released by another online job bank, yes123, last week showed that the average expected starting salary of new college and university graduates stood at NT$31,284 (US$1,012), down NT$254 or 0.8 percent from a similar survey conducted a year earlier.
Over the past three years, the yes123 survey showed that first-time jobseekers did not expect a significant salary increase given a job market that has suffered long-term wage stagnation.
According to the 1111 survey, among workers who want to have their own business, 30 percent said they aim to join a franchise to run a restaurant or food stall, and 22.5 percent said they plan to venture into the beverage business or have their own coffee shop.
The prospective business owners have, on average, about NT$770,000 in funds to build their businesses, with most of the money coming from savings, bank loans and financial support from family members or friends.
The survey, conducted from January to December last year, collected 3,164 valid questionnaires, including 1,046 in the 21-to-30 age group, the job bank said.
Survey of employees dreaming of owning business:
‧ 21 to 30 years old: 33.1 percent.
‧ 31 to 40 years old: 35 percent.
‧ Target business: franchise restaurant or food stall (30 percent); beverage or coffee shop (22.5 percent).

People advised to rent, not buy

People advised to rent, not buy

MORTGAGE PAYMENTS:Taipei’s house price-to-income ratio is about 17, so it would take about that many years to pay off a loan with no other expenses

Staff writer with CNA
Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) yesterday encouraged young people to consider renting a home first if they cannot afford to buy, saying that such a choice would allow them to invest more in their quality of life and their children’s education.
Yeh offered the advice in an interview on Yahoo TV Live when asked about the problem of young people being unable to buy homes because of low salaries and high property prices.
Saying that the home ownership rate in Taiwan is about 80 percent, Yeh added that most young couples about to get married take out a mortgage, which could be a heavy financial burden due to low salaries.
Instead, young people should start by renting a home so that they can direct their resources to enhancing their quality of life and their children’s education, he said.
To address high housing prices, the government has been pushing a public housing program that would make available a large number of affordable rental units, particularly to young people, Yeh said.
Taipei’s house price-to-income ratio is estimated at between 15 and 17, meaning that it would take an average income earner about 16 years to pay off a mortgage if they had no other expenses, according to a 2015 report issued last year by a housing and real-estate broker.
The average household in Taipei spends two-thirds of its income on mortgage payments, well above the affordable limit of 30 percent, the report said.

INTERVIEW: Academic pans one-size-fits-all approach to labor reform

INTERVIEW: Academic pans one-size-fits-all approach to labor reform

Discussing recent amendments to the Labor Standards Act with ‘Liberty Times’ (the sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’) staff reporter Cheng Chi-fang, National Taiwan University associate professor Hsin Ping-lung said that baseline employees are likely to suffer the most because of rising commodity prices, a net decrease in income and little hope of pay raises

National Taiwan University associate professor Hsin Ping-lung gestures during an interview in Taipei on Feb. 3.

Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times

Liberty Times (LT): The National Development Council has said that the amendments will not have a big impact. What are the actual effects?
Hsin Ping-lung (辛炳隆): The effects of the policy on society are greater than the council’s assessment because the council made its assessment based on data from the entire tertiary service sector nationwide, while we [the university] are making our assessments based on companies that have not complied with the policy.
According to our calculations, personnel overhead for the entire service sector has increased by 12.41 percent, increasing its overall overhead by 1.37 percent.
Restaurants have projected the highest increase in personnel costs at 17.04 percent, while their total overhead has increased by 5.9 percent, cutting into its 13.96 percent margin of profit by about 40 percent.
Personnel costs for retail have increased by 13.33 percent, increasing the total overhead for the industry by 1.73 percent, while transportation and storage industries have seen an increase of 9.67 percent to personnel costs, while their total overhead increased by 1.62 percent.
Some restaurant businesses said that some of their personnel costs have increased by 20 to 30 percent. While this is true, costs should at most cap out at 30 percent.
Normally, personnel costs at restaurants and eateries are 20 percent of total overhead, and in the event of a 30 percent increase in personnel costs, the total increase to overhead should rise by 6 percent. However, recently it rose by 10 percent.
If business owners are not in agreement on increasing prices, the market should be the prime determining factor.
Even so, there must be a clear reason, whether it is higher rent, increased prices for water and electricity, or additional material costs. The amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) cannot be blamed for everything.
The manufacturing industry is affected to a lesser degree, with 8.01 percent overall personnel increase and total overhead increase of 0.8 percent.
However, labor-intensive manufacturing industries are affected to a greater degree.
For example, personnel costs for the garment and jewelry industry have grown by 13.89 percent, with a total overhead increase to 2.72 percent, while estimated margin of profit stands at 2.17 percent.
The furs and leathers manufacturers have seen their total overhead increased to 2.1 percent, while its project margin of profit only stands at 2.9 percent.
These companies are seeing higher overhead and lower profits and might be the first to do away with overtime.
The consumer price index (CPI) over the past five years has been at an all-time low due to the downturn in Taiwan’s economy, but the businesses have all refrained from scaling up the prices until now.
The government’s reaction to price increases has also been on the slow side.
With Premier Lin Chuan (林全) saying that “price hikes are an inevitable result,” business owners see no reason not to increase their prices accordingly.
LT: Some companies have already increased their prices, reduced services, or placed restrictions on overtime as well as the hiring of temporary staff. How does all this affect workers and consumers?
Hsin: When the legislators amended the law, they did not think of how many people would not be able to work overtime due to the amendments. Worse, the index used to calculate overtime was the result of a “compromise” at the Legislative Yuan after a considerable debate.
The Legislative Yuan forgot to calculate how many corporations would actually be able to afford such rates, which brings us to our current state, in which most workers are aware of the rates, but cannot be paid those rates.
According to our research, there are many people in Taiwan who work second jobs due to low wages and the long hours required to meet their living expenses.
The question is whether the government should allow them to work elsewhere, or to simply work overtime at their primary jobs.
I think that they should work at their primary jobs, as there are regulations in place that would prevent individuals from being overworked.
After all, the calculation of work hours is based on the company and not the individual; if one worked eight hours in one company and then another eight hours at another company, they would be working overtime, but it would still be legal.
The result has two connotations, the first of which is that workers are severely underpaid. While the government hopes that workers could have more rest time, this comes at a price of workers not be able to earn enough to meet their living expenses.
Second, in the past it was corporations who were the ones to say that the Labor Standards Act could not be applied universally. Actually, the term “workers” cannot be applied universally as well.
While some workers are complaining about their inability to work overtime, other stand to gain.
For example, some hospitals are halting weekend shifts and many doctors are happy that they now have weekends. Doctors, being highly paid, therefore would want more days off rather than making more money.
In addition, there are suspicions that the amendments have intervened in the autonomy of labor. The workers are willing to put in extra hours for the extra pay, but the government has amended the law mandating that the companies deny their workers such options.
Even with additional hours on weekends, the workers are still getting one off day for every seven work days, and such a schedule may not have a significant impact on their health.
We must ask if the amendments that intervene in the autonomy of workers is right or wrong.
LT: Employers and workers have complained about the amendments. How should the amendments be adjusted or the policy modified?
Hsin: I believe the government should allow more overtime. If workers are concerned with increased overtime, the maximum allowable work hours per month could be raised from 46 hours to 54 hours, then a cap could be placed on the total overtime performed per year.
For instance, the total available overtime per year does not need to be derived by multiplying 54 hours by 12 months. We can take off 10 percent of that to allow flexibility in monthly work hours, but still reduce total overtime per year. This is a solution that should be acceptable to both employers and workers.
However, increased overtime may not help the service industry. For example, increasing overtime at a restaurant time will not have much effect, because the time available for work is limited by the customers’ meal times.
The service industry might have to hire more full-time or part-time employees, or it can try to acclimate customers to reduced service; but those solutions only address problems from the consumers’ end and does little to raise income for workers.
When low-income workers are concentrated on the food industry and the retail industry, the inability for employees to work overtime would have a negative effect on wages. In other words, raising the wages of low-income workers is the real problem.
I am not inclined to argue for amending the law again right now. Before considering further amendments or modifications to policy, the government should try to understand actual working conditions. How many people are moonlighting part-time because they are deprived of overtime work? What has been the policy’s impact on disadvantaged workers?
Government agencies have little idea of the actual situation at the moment. Committing to policy modifications without a coherent theory or adequate data may change things, for the worse.
LT: The Labor Standards Act amendments have been plagued by controversies from the start. What went wrong? How can the government avoid repeating its errors?
Hsin: The issue was highly politicized from the very beginning, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) blocked the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s proposal to cut seven national holidays.
[After the transfer of power,] the DPP found itself proposing to cut those same holidays, which it tried to compensate by implementing the “two-day weekend” scheme.
However, by then the “two fixed days off” counter-proposal was let out of the bottle, and the government found itself trying to fight it by adding more goodies to its proposal, including overtime pay and extra annual leave. Those measures were implemented without any follow-up research on their effects. The controversies became a runaway problem that completely got out of hand.
Other effects of the Labor Standards Act amendments might follow. For example, industries might accelerate their automation, driving down employment. For the government to protect workers, it must set its priorities.
I believe that employment and wages should take precedence over issues of work hours and vacation time. The government cannot possibly reach every policy objective it wants because employers are bound to transfer costs and react to policies, which may lead to more negative effects for workers than the previous “status quo.”
It is not likely that wages will be raised. With talks of raising the premium of the national labor insurance, it is even less likely that wages will be raised in the future.
The government needs to understand this fact: For both businesses and workers, it is no longer appropriate to apply a single set of labor standards in one code of law.
Every industry requires a different set of regulations, and to insist on uniformity is to court disaster. The reforms have backfired.
Translated by staff writers Jake Chung and Jonathan Chin

Overtime pay to extend to work issued via apps

Overtime pay to extend to work issued via apps

Staff Writer, with CNA
The New Taipei City Labor Affairs Department yesterday said its arbitration commission has ruled that employers must pay employees overtime if they assign work through instant messaging applications during non-work hours.
The case involved an electronics parts manufacturer employee who was laid off in 2015.
After being dismissed, the employee requested overtime pay — including for work done on his own time — after being assigned tasks by his superior over the instant messaging app Line.
According to the arbitration award, the company argued that the employee was not asked to go to the office on weekends and only had to send Line messages to three other employees, working no more than an extra 30 to 40 minutes per month.
The employee argued that the work took longer than the company claimed.
After reviewing communication records between the two sides consisting of Line messages and telephone calls, the commission ruled that the employee had worked an extra 358 minutes during weekdays and 1,007 minutes during weekends and required the company to pay an additional NT$2,598 in overtime pay.
It is the first time such an arbitration ruling has been made in Taiwan.
New Taipei City Department of Labor Affairs Director Hsieh Cheng-ta (謝政達) said the commission’s decision has the same effect as a court ruling.
In response to the ruling, General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China head Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰) accused the government of being “too nosy.”
The tasks employers ask employees to do after work hours are urgent or irregular and as such are hard to predict, Lai said, adding that the government should be lenient in such instances.

Labor groups call for better regulation of flexible rest days

Labor groups call for better regulation of flexible rest days

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter
The implementation of recent amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) continue to cause problems as the Ministry of Labor’s supplementary measures prove inadequate, labor groups said yesterday, calling for better regulation of “flexible rest days.”
“There has been a lot of controversy over the act’s implementation and we ask whether it has resulted in greater guarantees for workers or greater benefits for employers,” Hsinchu County Confederation of Trade Unions president Chan Su-chen (詹素貞) said.
Chan was speaking at a legislative hearing sponsored by the Workers’ Struggle Alliance in cooperation with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明).
The implementation of the “flexible rest day” policy that lowers working hours has drawn criticism from industrial associations and employers, and labor groups yesterday said that the regulations are riddled with loopholes.
Alliance member Kuo Kuan-chun (郭冠均) said employers can use compensatory leave time to circumvent strict overtime rules for work performed on a “flexible rest day.”
“The Ministry of Labor needs to clearly state that compensatory leave be granted using the same ratio for calculating overtime pay, otherwise the new overtime rules will not have any effect,” he said, adding that the ministry should also stipulate that workers can change their minds after agreeing to work on their rest day.
“If you require them to formally ask for time off, their employers could reject them,” he said, adding that employees should only be required to give advance notice to their employers in cases where work shifts are scheduled months in advance.
Taiwan Railway Union director Chou Kai (周鍇) called for the definition of the “flexible rest day” to be changed to a “calendar day” rather than any 24-hour period to force changes to the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) “shift wheel.”
TRA employees put in long overtime hours because they are denied regular weekly days off, instead following a “shift wheel” of alternating work and rest periods.
National Security Guard Industrial Union president Chang Tien-sung (張天送) called for the inclusion of security guards in legal provisions that guarantee a weekly “flexible day off,” adding that guards’ working hours have increased since the amendments came into effect due to the elimination of seven national holidays.
Security guards are one of several professions subject to exceptions to overtime and other regulations under a special provision of the act.

TRA workers to be disciplined over strike

TRA workers to be disciplined over strike

GUIDELINES:The TRA has yet to make an official announcement, as the law forbids it from taking action while management and workers are engaged in arbitration

By Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter
More than 300 Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) employees are to be punished for going on strike during the Lunar New Year holiday, the TRA said.
The strike was launched by the Taiwan Railway Union (TRU) in protest against a personnel shortage that has been plaguing the agency for years.
The union defended its action, saying workers were legally entitled to take the Lunar New Year holiday off.
TRA Director-General Jason Lu (鹿潔身) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee that 331 employees are to be punished for being absent on the days they were scheduled to work, based on a resolution made by the agency’s disciplinary committee.
Of the total, 235 are to be given one major demerit each for missing more than two days of work.
Six are to receive two minor demerits for missing two work days, and nine are to be given one minor demerit for missing one work day.
The penalties were determined based on the guidelines on rewards and punishments for civil servants, but the union still lodged a complaint against the TRA with the Ministry of Labor, Lu said.
“We have yet to make an official announcement on the punishment because the Act for Settlement of Labor-Management Disputes (勞資爭議法) stipulates that employers are banned from taking actions that would harm employees while labor and management are still engaged in arbitration. We can only approve and announce the decision when the arbitration is finished,” he said.
Although the union has argued that members had requested to take the Lunar New Year holiday off before the holiday began, Lu said the agency had also sent out two official notices reminding employees to show up for work based on the work schedule.
The union has accused the agency of suppressing its activities using improper means, but its complaints were not about the punishment, Lu said.
If the employees do not accept the penalties, they can seek administrative remedies by appealing to the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission, he added.
“The TRA director-general disregarded workers’ anger over the work schedule, which forces people to overwork. He did not even consider reforming TRA’s work-shift system after a major freeway bus accident that killed 33 people last month. Instead, he kept telling people that the TRA would severely punish employees who went on strike. He also showed contempt of the law by announcing the decision of the disciplinary committee before the arbitration is over,” the union said.
While Lu reiterated that TRA employees should follow the agency’s work rules and have a duty to serve the public, he has disregarded passengers’ safety by letting employees overwork, the union said.
The union said that all the 337 cases it had submitted to the labor ministry were about the TRA’s rulings against its employees for being absent from work.
Lu should retract the punishment while they are waiting for the decision by the labor ministry’s arbitration committee, the union said, adding that the agency and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should not oppress its workers like a demanding, but cheap employer.