Taiwan: Thousands protest for workers’ rights
Taipei Times | Sunday May 02 2010
Thousands protest for workers’ rights
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
More than 10,000 workers from across the country marched on the streets of Taipei to voice their anger at the increasing trend of temporary hiring and the exclusion of labor issues in talks for an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) the government plans to sign with China.
“No to temporary hiring! Defend the independence of unions! Include labor issues in ECFA talks!” were slogans shouted by thousands of workers as they marched on the streets of Taipei toward the Executive Yuan.
“Temporary hiring is an exploitation of workers that’s becoming more and more popular among private companies, as well as government authorities,” Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions secretary-general Hsieh Chuang-chih (謝創智) told the crowd. “The government should take up its responsibility to protect workers’ rights. It should start by banning temporary hiring at government agencies.”
Workers hired on a temporary basis are those who are affiliated with temporary employment agencies and are assigned work if a private or government organization asks for them. Since employers do not have to pay benefits for temporary workers, it has become a popular way to hire because it can help to cut costs.
However, it means less job stability for workers. Instead of trying to ban temporary hires, the government seems to want to give it a legal basis, Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said.
“The Council of Labor Affairs is drafting amendments to the Labor Standards Act [勞動基準法] to ban temporary hiring from eight industries,” Son said. “So that means temporary hire would be allowed in all industries other than the eight listed in the law.”
Taoyuan County Confederation of Trade Unions chairman Wu Chung-hsin (吳忠信), called on the government to include labor issues in negotiations on ECFA with China.
Hsieh also expressed this view.
“Both President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] and Chinese president Hu Jintao [胡錦濤] have stressed the benefits of an ECFA for businesses. This shows that an ECFA is aimed at serving only the capitalists,” Hsieh said. “Any type of free trade agreement, including an ECFA, would bring severe unemployment and lower conditions for workers.”
Facing angry workers, Minister Without Portfolio James Hsueh (薛承泰) promised on behalf of Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that the government would look into the workers’ demands carefully and come up with solutions. However, protesters yelled “liar” and “you said that last year!” when Hsueh spoke to them.
The demonstration ended peacefully after protesters vented their anger by throwing mud at pictures of the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan. At a separate setting yesterday, when asked to comment on the demonstration, the premier said he had asked government agencies to deal with the issues seriously, adding that the government and labor groups shared the same values in strengthening the functions of trade unions and protecting the rights and interests of laborers.
Wu said the system has been in place for six or seven years, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power. However, the number of foreign laborers declined in the last two years since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) took power, down from the peak during the DPP government, he said.
In related news, DPP legislators Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) and Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) told a press conference yesterday that more than 70 percent of employees at the CLA’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training were contract workers, whom they described as “disposable items.”
The contract workers at the bureau help unemployed people find jobs, but those workers are about to lose their jobs, the lawmakers said, calling on the government to review its streamlining policy.
The bureau said its contract workers were not “disposable” and that most were able to continue working after the projects for which they were initially hired are completed.
Lin San-quei (林三貴), director-general of the bureau, said they mainly outsourced jobs that ran on a continual basis, such as vocational training and employment assistance. Successful bidders for those projects were often the Chinese National Federation of Industries, the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions or the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan and CNA
