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.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS