President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) once described the nation’s low birth rate as a national security crisis, but “educarers,” the front-line workers caring for the nation’s young, have not been treated fairly, lawmakers and the Alliance of Educare Trade Unions said yesterday.
Nurseries and kindergartens were merged into preschools under the Early Childhood Education and Care Act (幼兒教育及照顧法) last year to provide proper care and education to children aged two to six.
However, the alliance said in a statement that during the amendment process, it sought to secure the labor rights of the educarers, but was then dumbfounded to find that under the new act, preschools, without negotiations with the affected groups, have tacitly become units that are only asked to “voluntarily” apply the provisions of the Labor Insurance Act (勞工保險條例).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said that before the enactment of the new act, all private nurseries were considered organizations operated for the public welfare and were automatically eligible for mandatory Labor Insurance coverage.
Even then, 19.7 percent of the nurseries did not have their employees covered, the alliance said.
“However, the new Act requires preschools to be registered as non-profit corporations with five or more employees before being eligible for mandatory Labor Insurance coverage,” Tuan said, adding that there are about 45,000 educarers in the nation, and only 3,100 of them, who work in public preschools, have mandatory coverage.
Apart from low wages and long hours, educarers are now deprived of mandatory coverage promised by the government, DPP Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said.
“While paying a monthly salary of only NT$20,100, employers can avoid shouldering the NT$3,500 cost of Labor Insurance, Employment Insurance, Occupational Hazard Insurance and National Health Insurance under the existing regulations,” Wu said.
The financial burden is passed on to the government and educarers, who are now insured by their union if they are to be covered by Labor Insurance at all, Wu said. The government now has to pay 30 percent more than what it had to pay when the cost was split with their employer and the educarers 40 percent, Wu added.
Since 98 percent of educarers are female, the exclusion also means the birth subsidy funded by employment insurance — not insured by the occupational union — would be stripped from educarers who have children, Wu said.
Alliance of Educare Trade Unions director-general Wang Su-ying (王淑英) said that educarers have employers who should clearly bear the costs of insurance, rather than leaving that to their union.
In response, Council of Labor Affairs official Chen Hui-min (陳慧敏) yesterday said the council would consider requiring all preschools not yet registered as non-profit corporations to insure their employees under the Labor Insurance program and announce the resolution in a month.
‘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