Students at Tamkang University in New Taipei City on Friday staged a protest against a layoff plan they said the school proposed to avoid paying pensions and National Health Insurance premiums for its part-time teaching staff.
An amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) that takes effect in August would require such payments, they said.
Rallying in front of a school building, a group of protesters held up placards, shouting: “Protect teachers’ right to work. No compromise on students’ right to education.”
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
The alleged layoff plan is detrimental to learning, as it would result in a drain of teaching staff and larger classes, and would leave students with fewer course choices, the protesters said.
Students at the university have already had to forgo their preferred courses, as the school has not provided enough opportunities, and layoffs would only make matters worse, student Hsieh Yi-hung (謝毅弘) said.
Hsieh said he launched a petition urging the university to abandon the plan and reinstate all the courses it plans to cancel.
The petition also asked the school not to fire part-time academics, not to make full-time teaching staff work overtime and to stop hurting teaching quality by merging classes.
Prior to the protest, the petition had already received more than 1,800 signatures, he said.
Protesters later attempted to deliver the petition to university president Chang Chia-i (張家宜), who sent Office of Academic Affairs dean Lin Chun-hung (林俊宏) to meet them instead.
Lin said he could not guarantee the university would schedule a hearing, angering the protesters, who demanded answers from the school’s management.
Taiwan Higher Education Union director Chen Shu-han (陳書涵), who participated in the protest, criticized the university, saying that the school showed no intention to resolve the issue.
English department associate professor Wang Hui-chuan (王慧娟) said her department had 68 part-time lecturers, but only 38 full-time lecturers.
The department’s faculty was shocked when they learned of the layoff plan, which would shift the burden of teaching to full-time teaching staff after part-time lecturers are dismissed, she said.
The department offers 164 classes for first and second-year students, 102 of whom would be left with no lecturers after the plan comes into effect, she said.
“The plan came as a surprise, and we have to suffer the loss of many great colleagues,” Wang said.
A student in the French department, who requested anonymity, said that conversation classes are kept small so that students have enough class time to practice, but that the number of students in a conversation class would increase to 70 if the plan is pushed through.
“How are we supposed to learn this way?” the student asked.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS