Taiwanese workers took to the streets of Taipei on Sunday in an annual Labor Day demonstration, calling for the enactment of a new minimum wage law and a financial lifeline for the country’s deficit-ridden pension program.
Around 1,000 protesters from groups including the Taiwan Labour Front (TLF) gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office building, having decided in advance not to hold a follow-up march due to COVID-19 concerns.
In a press release, the TLF called on President Tsai Ing-wen (???) to fulfill her 2016 campaign promise to enact a Minimum Wage Act to help resolve Taiwan’s longstanding problem of low salaries.
The legislation, the group argued, would be a more “transparent and reasonable” alternative to the current system, in which minimum wage adjustments are proposed by a special committee under the Ministry of Labor (MOL).
The government, the group said, should also update laws protecting job seekers to reflect changes in the modern employment market, and rigorously promote and enforce the Labor Occupational Accident Insurance and Protection Act, which went into effect on Sunday.
The TLF also urged the government and opposition parties to shore up the Labor Insurance Fund — Taiwan’s main pension system for retired workers — which is on track to go bankrupt in 2028 without government intervention.
Finally, the group said, the Legislature should pass a Labor Education Act, setting up a system to educate workers on the rights and protections they are guaranteed under the law.
In response, the Ministry of Labor noted that it had recently submitted a draft Minimum Wage Act to the Cabinet for review.
Even without the legislation, the MOL’s Minimum Wage Review Committee has raised the monthly minimum wage by 26.2 percent and the minimum hourly salary by more than 40 percent since 2016, the ministry said.
In terms of workplace safety, Taiwan now has one occupational safety and hygiene inspector for every 11,152 workers, close to the 1:10,000 ratio recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the ministry said.
The MOL also vowed to continue looking at ways to guarantee the long-term stability of the labor insurance system, but cautioned that any major reforms would have to achieve consensus from society.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) drivers, who held a one-day strike on Sunday to protest plans to turn the TRA into a public corporation, gathered to hold a demonstration at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
After their protest, the roughly one hundred TRA workers laid white roses in memory of the victims of past railway accidents, and then proceeded on foot to join the larger labor demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel