Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Injuries (TAVOI) activists and more than 20 labor unionists staged a demonstration in front of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday, demanding the council include depression in its list of occupational injuries.
“We have handled many cases of work-related depression in recent years,” said Huang Hsiao-ling (黃小陵), secretary-general of the group. “Most of the cases were caused by work overload, unreasonable treatment, demands from a superior or worries over being laid off.”
About 20 to 30 workers on average each year believe their depression is job-related and seek help from the association, Huang said.
Chen Chiao-lien (陳巧蓮), a former employee at the Unitech Printed Circuit Board Corp was one of the workers with depression who went to the TAVOI for help.
Chen started working at the company in 1999, stayed as one of the top performers and was promoted to a lower-level management position.
However, 18 months later, Chen was removed from her management position because of quality control defects.
She was soon moved to a department in which she was often yelled at and humiliated by her superior.
Finally, she became severely depressed and was hospitalized twice because of her mental condition.
“Chen’s application to collect labor insurance payment was rejected because depression isn’t on the list of occupational injuries,” Huang said. “So we brought her with us to a protest last November, asking the CLA to include depression on the list.”
At the time, CLA officials said they would consider expanding the list, “and they did yesterday [Thursday], but depression is still not included,” Huang said.
The CLA publicized a new list of occupational injuries on Thursday that added 18 cancers and two types of surgical trauma — but not depression.
“Depression isn’t included in the new list because it’s difficult to tell if depression is really caused by work conditions,” Wu Hung-hsiang (吳宏翔), a CLA official who received the protesters said. “But just because we didn’t add it to the list this time doesn’t mean that it won’t be added in the future — we will study it further.”
The protesters were unhappy with the response.
“Putting depression on the list doesn’t mean that all workers with depression can automatically collect insurance payments,” Huang said.
“It just means that the council recognizes work conditions as a possible cause of depression. Each individual case will still need to be investigated and verified by a panel of experts,” Huang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and