Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen (盧嘉辰) yesterday called for changes to the Employee Welfare Fund Act (職工福利金條例). to slash benefits for employees of state-run enterprises.
Lu said he was seeking the support of other lawmakers to file such an amendment in the legislature.
The plan to amend the law follows a public outcry against the massive benefits enjoyed by employees of state-owned companies, in particular oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan, and electricity supplier Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
Public anger has mounted following CPC’s raising of domestic fuel prices by between 7 and 11 percent on Monday to curb widening losses.
Although the firm is operating in the red, its employees still enjoy massive welfare benefits.
The public is even more furious, as the government is considering raising electricity tariffs to help Taipower, which said it has accumulated losses because of high energy costs.
In addition to the welfare benefits, employees of state-owned companies receive year-end bonuses of up to 4.6 months of their annual salaries.
Lu said the proposed amendment to the Employee Welfare Fund Act would focus on the amount of welfare benefits a state-owned company is allowed to assign to its employees.
It would require state-owned companies to assign 2 percent of the total salaries of their employees as financial benefits, the legislator said.
Current regulations allow state-run firms to assign a fraction of their monthly revenue as welfare funds for their employees.
Once the revision is approved by the legislature, the average benefits for CPC employees for this year would fall to NT$7,800, compared with an estimated NT$48,818 at present, Lu said.
In the case of Taipower, average benefits would drop to NT$5,583, from NT$29,926, he said.
Lu said it was no longer acceptable for loss-making state-owned companies such as CPC and Taipower to disburse massive funds as perks for their employees, as this would only further squeeze their bottom lines.
Moreover, as many state-owned companies are either monopolies or oligopolies, they generate massive revenues, making the current welfare benefit system inappropriate, he said.
He added that the welfare benefit appropriation measures had not been revisited for almost 70 years, and it was time to review the rules.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we