Holiday reduction proposal rejected

LABOR RIGHTS VIGIL:Protesters gathered outside the Legislative Yuan welcomed the decision, but said a resolution focused too much on legal technicalities

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Labor rights campaigners yesterday hold banners and wave placards outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, calling on the Ministry of Labor and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen not to cut the number of national holidays.

Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

A Ministry of Labor proposal to cut the number of officially designated national holidays was yesterday rejected by the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, in a hearing marred by clashes between legislators and Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文).

The committee passed a resolution condemning the ministry’s executive order, saying it violated the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).

The executive order is to be sent back to the ministry for reconsideration if the resolution is approved by the Legislative Yuan’s full session.

The ministry moved to reduce the number of national holidays after the passage of legislation mandating a 40-hour work week drew criticism from legislators in questioning before the committee’s vote.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤), a former Kaohsiung Bureau of Labor Affairs commissioner, said the ministry’s order violated articles of the Labor Standards Act that mandate days off should be granted for days of commemoration, Labor Day and other holidays decided by central government bodies. Designation of the holidays cut by the ministry’s executive order is the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, he said, accusing the Ministry of Labor of overstepping its authority.

Chen responded by denying that the ministry had any obligation to provide workers with a holiday for days of commemoration.

“We could make your birthday a day of commemoration, but there would still be no reason to give people a day off,” Chen said, adding that the past system of national holidays was overly politicized, citing Retrocession Day and Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday.

“If we have a day of commemoration [on Chiang’s birthday], I really do not know what we are commemorating or taking a day off for,” he said, adding that the Teachers’ Day holiday was also contradictory.

“Confucius’ birthday is Teachers’ Day, but teachers do not get the day off — why should workers?” he said.

Other holidays cited included the day after New Year’s Day, Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birthday, Youth Day — which commemorates martyrs of China’s Xinhai Revolution — and a day to commemorate the Republic of China Constitution coming into effect.

Chen also said that additional regular days off following the introduction of the 40-hour work week are enough compensation for the reduction in national holidays.

“If labor activists are so unhappy, we could just go back to the original law with an 84-hour two-week work cycle and restore all of the holidays, then workers will lose six additional days off,” he said.

National Alliance for Workers of Closed Factories member Mao Chen-fei (毛振飛), who was invited to represent labor interests at the hearing, said Chen was “out of touch” and “arrogant” for saying that workers would have an additional six days off every year under the new system.

“I would like to invite the minister to come down and see how labor shifts are actually scheduled,” he said, reiterating activists’ concerns that employers would use a reduction in daily working hours to continue to force workers to work six days a week.

He said that workers who previously worked on national holidays would also face income cuts because of the difference between holiday and normal overtime, adding that someone earning a minimum monthly wage of NT$20,008 would earn NT$4,900 less each year.

Labor rights promoters held a vigil outside the Legislation Yuan throughout the committee hearing.

They welcomed the committee’s decision, but said its resolution focused on legal technicalities without taking a position on whether the holidays should be kept.

Lawmaker urges wider scope over labor decision

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Opinions from businesses should not be the sole consideration in the decision over whether labor representatives should be required on corporate boards, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday, adding that the Financial Supervisory Commission had only included corporations in an opinion survey on proposed legislation.

“While shareholders own firms, corporate governance is moving more in the direction of separating ownership and management,” Huang said at a meeting of the Finance Committee.

“It is also clear that the results of a corporation’s success or failure do not only affect shareholders, they also affect its employees,” he said.

Committee members discussed proposed amendments to the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) to require the appointment of labor representatives on all corporate boards.

Huang said that corporate opinion should not be the only “standard” against which new legislation is measured, given that the right of shareholders to elect a majority of board members would not be affected.

The proposed amendments were put on hold after Financial Supervisory Commission Chairwoman Jennifer Wang (王儷玲) raised concerns with them, citing opposition from 76 percent of listed companies surveyed by the commission last year.

Wang said that while the commission was not opposed to requiring boards to include labor representatives, amendments should not be forced through in the absence of public “consensus” and clear “supplementary measures” to prevent disturbances to corporate management.

Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions chairman Chuang Fu-kai (莊福凱) said the presence of labor representatives on boards of nationally owned firms — which has been mandated since 2000 — has given unions a voice regarding company operations.

The proposed amendments are “necessary to ensure that the firm’s finances and policies are fully transparent and we understand its future development and policies,” Chuang said.

“They would provide peace of mind while employees work,” Chuang added.

The Taiwan Union Monitor of Corporate Responsibility said in a statement that labor representatives on corporate boards were the “last mile” in the path toward corporate democracy.

Most young people want to be their own boss: survey

Staff writer, with CNA

Most young people in Taiwan would rather run their own business than work for others in a competitive local job market where wages have stagnated, a survey showed yesterday.

According to the survey conducted by the online 1111 Job Bank, 86 percent of people under the age of 35 would prefer to establish their own business instead of working for someone else.

Among that 86 percent, the poll showed 8.1 percent already have their own business, 6.1 percent are preparing to start a business and 6.5 percent said that they had already done so, but the business had failed.

The survey found that 64.9 percent of those who want to have their own business have never taken any action toward that goal.

One of the biggest issues for young people in the job market is low pay, 1111 Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said.

In addition, it is difficult for young people to find good jobs in the current competitive and unfriendly local job market, because most of them lack work experience, Lee said, adding that many employees are also expected to work long hours.

Lee said young jobseekers and employees are also frustrated because of the scant opportunities for promotion, so many of them want to have their own business and become their own boss, as indicated by the survey.

Among those who have already set up their own business, 69.5 percent did so because they wanted more income, 52.5 percent preferred flexible working hours and 39.7 percent wished to pursue their own interests, the poll found.

It showed that 68.6 percent of those who are already their own boss have set a stop-loss point of about NT$500,000.

That relatively low figure indicates that young people in Taiwan tend to be conservative about funding for a new business, the job bank said.

Holiday cuts proposal returned to ministry

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

New Power Party caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming demands the Ministry of Labor restore the number of national holidays to 19 days for workers yesterday at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

Photo: CNA

The legislative general assembly yesterday approved the Health and Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee’s resolution to return the Ministry of Labor’s proposed amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法施行細則) that called for a reduction of the number of national holidays as days off from 19 to 12 to be corrected or abolished.

The ministry’s proposed amendments were made as a supporting measure for the newly legislated 40-hour workweek. They have drawn criticism from both labor groups and lawmakers since they were announced last year.

The legislature subjected the amendments to the enforcement rules — an executive order in this case that would be referred to the legislature for future reference or a substantive review by the legislative committee, if the legislature decides so — to a committee review in January, which resolved that the amendment should be sent back to the ministry for correction or abolition on March 28.

The resolution passed by the committee stated then that while the “central competent authority” in Article 37 of the Labor Standards Act — which stipulates that a worker “shall be granted recess on all holidays, the Labor Day and other days prescribed by the Central Competent Authority” — indicates the labor ministry, it is the Ministry of the Interior that is the designated competent authority in the draft legislation concerning days of commemoration that is now under review.

The committee also accused the labor ministry of violating the mother law, the Labor Standards Act, by revising the enforcement rules to grant the labor ministry the right to arbitrarily decide what days should be counted as days off for workers.

According to the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法), the executive order would automatically cease to be valid with the Executive Yuan’s inaction two months after the legislature’s notification calling for a correction or abolition.

New Power Party caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said after the general assembly’s approval of the committee’s resolution that the amendments were supposed to mandate the 40-hour workweek to alleviate overwork, but the amendment proposal has at the same time reduced holidays and extended the permitted overtime.

“However, the Minister of Labor [Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文)], despite the public furor toward the change, nevertheless made ideological remarks during the committee review, saying that if [the lawmakers and the protesters] do not identify with the seven holidays to be cut, why do they need to be days off?” Hsu said.

“This is a remark that has absolutely overlooked the ministry’s responsibility to protect workers’ rights,” Hsu said.

The said holidays include Taiwan Retrocession Day (Oct. 25), Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday (Oct. 31) and the day that saw the Republic of China Constitution’s first implementation (Dec. 25).

Renegade DPP Apologist Turton Fried in Taipei Times Feature

Editor's Note: He's not one of the "good old boys" of the Democratic Progressive Party DPP network; just an American trophy as the neo-liberal counter-point to the KMT nestled into their place with the ruling class. 

   Michael Turton, despite his anti-establishment posturing, wouldn't join me in promoting awareness of union history and supporting unions. He had his own agenda and now he's become an enemy to the DPP that used him as its English mouthpiece. The Taipei Times discredited him; they don't want him to be their "shock jock" anymore. He served his purpose as the English-speaking sound bite for CNN and other corporate media, but now that Tsai Ying-Wen will be the next president and the DPP controls the legislature, Michael Turton will be a “loose cannon.”

     This blogger first met Mr. Turton through an event he promoted on Facebook, a "Skeptics in the Pub" meeting he presented at in 2014 

http://taichungjournal.blogspot.tw/2014/06/intro-to-jesus-mythicism-presentation.html

and has had articles censored by him as moderator of Taiwan News In English http://taiwwan.blogspot.tw/2015/08/the-lie-that-is-taiwan-news-in-english.html) . 

 Read the article some hench-woman from Taipei Times wrote about him on March 15, 2016: 

1 0H 1: The shock jock of Taiwan politics

He’s a sci-fi writer, teacher, polymath, cyclist, epicure and a long-time lover of Taiwan. Blogger Michael Turton turns on the tap

By Jules Quartly  /  Contributing reporter

Blogger Michael Turton.

Photo: Jules Quartly

We’re getting on well. Nice lunch, a little oolong tea, bright conversation. We stroll over to the nearby park to continue our talk, watch the world go by and find we have a lot in common. He’s charming, well informed and trots out a succession of witty one-liners. Then we take a couple of photos and it’s time to say goodbye. He politely asks to see the interview before it’s published, I say I can’t do that. And the mood suddenly changes.

He says if he can’t see the article first, then I can’t run it. We compromise by my agreeing to check the quotes with him for accuracy.

I was a bit disappointed, but Michael Turton — the well known blogger, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan independence supporter, science fiction writer, keen cyclist, devoted dad and foodie — is made of sterner stuff.

The 52-year-old has lived in Taiwan for more than 20 years, but originally hails from a coal mining town in Pennsylvania. It’s Confederate flag territory and if you’ve seen The Deer Hunter, you get the idea.

POLITICAL COMEUPPANCE

Like many long-term expats he’s not necessarily kind about the land of his birth. Asked whether the US is going to be great again, or is great already, he says: “Since [Ronald] Reagan it’s been an obvious train wreck and it’s only got worse over the last 30 years … [Donald] Trump is a horror story, an extremely powerful buffoon. Hillary [Clinton] is a disaster too, she’s basically a Wall Street puppet.”

He calls Trump the “Great American id run wild” and “a sign of system failure.” He doesn’t believe Trump will get the Republican nomination.

“He’s just the first and not the last, and in the future they’re going to be cleverer and won’t be so bombastic, or refer to their male dangly ornamentation,” he warns.

When he boils it down he sounds a bit Marxist. In a good way.

“The Republicans are going to get all the racist crap they’ve been cultivating for the last 40 years come home to them and it’s going to blow them apart,” he says. “It’s always been an uneasy alliance between wealthy elites screwing the white working class and cemented by shared racism. It’s the way the South works. It’s the Confederacy in charge of the Republican party.”

All this comes out at pace. Turton just turns on the tap and it pours out. He then worries that he’s said too much. I imagine him writing (his blog “The View from Taiwan” has been running since 2005, michaelturton.blogspot.com) in a stream-of-consciousness style. He then forces himself to leave it to the next day, before doing a heavy edit, taking out the incendiary material, and only then hitting send.

As I understand it, he ought to be fairly accommodating to Republicans because they generally support full-on sovereignty for Taiwan; a decisive break with China and Taiwan lining up with the US militarily in the war that will “inevitably come” with the communists. A mostly naval, limited war, he believes.

Democrats, on the other hand, would rather accommodate China and are therefore more prone to give concessions over Taiwan, maintain the status quo and keep the money rolling in with its major trading partner.

I say he sounds pessimistic, and admit to cynicism myself. In response, he wheels out the Stephen Colbert line: “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom.”

SWEET HOME TAICHUNG

A former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, Turton ended up in Taiwan by accident, following a friend, having nothing better to do. He characterizes the country as the “Island of the Lotus Eaters,” an Earthly paradise that you can never leave. It’s from Homer’s Odyssey, one of his favorite books.

He’s settled in Taichung, because the weather’s good and it’s like Taipei 20 years ago. “Same feeling, same gangsters,” he jokes.

When we meet he’s in a bright mood because the week’s work is done, teaching English part-time at Chang Gung University of Science and Technology in Taipei. The sun has poked its head out after hiding for a month and Taiwan has turned a deep shade of green, politically speaking, with the election of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as president. He’s in triumphalist mode.

I get the feeling that as much as he enjoyed the DPP victory, he revels in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) collapse even more. He underlines this by saying, “The DPP didn’t win, the KMT lost because they were incompetent.”

Though he calls the KMT a “tumor you can’t cut out,” he adds the party is “doomed” and spells out why in a recent blog.

First the KMT is aging; there’s no real career path for thrusting KMT politicians; young people identify as Taiwanese and the KMT has never really represented Taiwan; its control of local factions (temples and gangsters) is weakening, as are the factions themselves; demographics have changed; its losing the money that made it powerful; and finally, it’s not actually a political party but rather “the political organization of a colonial ruling class.”

I tell him all I see is the same two established parties in the future, much the same as other democracies, fighting over power, in and out of the revolving election door. I offer a bet, but he doesn’t take it. He even backtracks a little by saying the only way the KMT can survive is by Taiwanizing. Then, he repeats the points above and assures me if there are two parties in the future, they’re more likely to be the result of a fissure in the DPP.

“The DPP is split in respect of economics and class, there’s the pro-business camp and the poor people,” he says.

Importantly, Turton doesn’t see much argument within the DPP about Taiwan identity. Some commentators play up the differences between “Taiwan independence (台獨, taidu) and “Republic of China independence” (華獨, huadu) supporters, with the former basically wanting to get rid of the ROC regime entirely, and the latter accepting the status quo.

But Turton called it a long time ago.

“This is the post-independence generation. Everyone is Taiwanese. Huadu, Taidu, we’re past all that, everyone knows we’re past that now.”

You can forgive him for feeling vindicated.

“It was only this election that people in the mainstream media used the term ‘pro-Taiwan’ rather than ‘anti-China.’ It was a pivotal moment. It’s something I’ve been saying for 11 years. It was like a flower turning to the new sun.”

He’s also optimistic about Taiwan, especially now we’ve got rid of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his fire sale of the economy to the highest Chinese bidder. The country is upgrading as we speak. While he admits it doesn’t look that good right now, with wages having near-frozen over the past decade, he expects it to “tick up a bit. I’m really looking forward to the future.”

For someone who is criticized for being such a dyed-in-the-wool DPP “apologist,” Turton is surprisingly free-thinking and wide ranging. A bit anarchic — the shock jock of Taiwan politics.

He also wins by being able to laugh at himself and has a neat line in self-deprecation. For instance, he says of his political writing. “I’m a very particular kind of parasite. Without the people providing information, I wouldn’t have anything to comment on.”

And for the record, Turton didn’t object to anything attributed to him, except for a second sentence in the Colbert quote about cynicism, because he didn’t say it and “it makes me look smarter than I am to use that.”

1 0H 1: Can refer to Taipei 101; an introductory course or analysis; One uh One, a spare male at a party, or a useless person — always male; there are about 1.01 men for every 1 woman, thus, every one hundred and first male is not going to find a partner; a one-on-one interview.

views: 5187 as of 3-20-16

Taiwan ranked 14th-freest economy

STILL WORK TO DO:In Taiwan, connections remain between politics and big business, and corruption is still a problem, the ‘Index of Economic Freedom’ said

By William Lowther  /  Staff reporter in WASHINGTON Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Taiwan has achieved its highest-ever score in the annual Index of Economic Freedom released on Friday, remaining the 14th-freest economy in the world, the same position it occupied in the previous year’s ranking.

The nation is ranked fifth out of 42 economies in the Asia-Pacific region and has improved over the past year in seven of the 10 categories measured by the index.

“Despite progress, however, a relatively high level of perceived corruption and a rigid labor market still restrain Taiwan’s overall economic freedom,” the report said.

Published and compiled by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, the report has attracted global attention for more than 20 years.

The global average score for economic freedom is 60.4 out of 100, with Taiwan scoring above that figure with 75.1.

Among the 178 nations ranked, scores improved for 101 nations and declined for 73, while 90 nations were found to provide a moderate or better level of economic freedom.

The number of people living in economically “unfree” nations remains high — 4.5 billion, or 65 percent of the world’s population. More than half of them live in just two countries, China and India.

“The fundamental relationship between economic freedom and prosperity is readily apparent worldwide,” the report said. “No matter the region, per capita income levels are consistently higher in countries that are economically freer.”

Hong Kong and Singapore were ranked first and second respectively for the 21st consecutive year, followed by New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland.

The index evaluates nations in four broad policy areas: Rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency and open markets.

There are 10 specific categories: Property rights, freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, government spending, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom.

In Taiwan, connections remain between politics and big business, and corruption is still a problem, the report said.

“Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property,” the report said.

“In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume and invest in any way they please,” it added.

Prudent macroeconomic policy within a stable legal and monetary environment has been key to rising levels of economic freedom in Taiwan over the past five years, the report said.

“Commitment to structural reforms and openness to global commerce have enabled Taiwan to advance far into the ‘mostly free’ category,” it said. “Taiwan’s export-driven, dynamic economy benefits from a well-functioning legal framework and a tradition of private-sector entrepreneurship.”

“The efficient business environment is facilitated by a competitively low corporate tax rate and the elimination of minimum capital requirements for incorporating a company,” the report said.

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Labor Insurance Fund may be bankrupt by 2027

By Huang Pang-ping and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

People visit the office of the Labor Insurance Bureau in Taipei in an undated photograph.

Photo: Taipei Times

The Labor Insurance Fund is likely to start posting losses by 2018 and could face bankruptcy by 2027, with liabilities rising to NT$8.36 trillion (US$248.8 billion) from NT$6.83 trillion, according to the fund’s latest report released yesterday.

Bureau of Labor Insurance Deputy Director Lee Sung-lin (李松林) said that the fund’s bankruptcy could be delayed until 2038 if policy reforms approved by the Executive Yuan could be implemented.

However, policy implementation has been suspended until president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) takes over the government in May and appoints a new Cabinet, Lee said.

The Executive Yuan had originally planned to subsidize the fund by NT$20 billion to NT$200 billion per year, raising the insurance premium rate by 0.5 percentage points until it reaches 18 percent, expanding the insured salary levels by 12 months per year to reach 144 months from the current 60 months, and lowering payout rates from 1.55 percent to 1.3 percent for those with a monthly salary of NT$30,000.

The report did not differ much from the previous report, aside from a sharp increase of NT$1.53 trillion in liabilities, due to an aging society, Lee said

The fund’s return on investment has seen an increase over the past decade, which has contributed to reducing its debts, Lee said.

However, rising payouts because of increases in annual salaries of the insured and an aging society ensure that the fund would continue accruing debt and would eventually be bankrupt, the report said.