Laid-off workers who were ordered by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) to repay retirement payouts given to them 16 years ago as loans yesterday launched a hunger strike in front of the council’s headquarters in Taipei, demanding it withdraw the lawsuits against the workers who did not pay and calling for a review of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
“We are not asking the council to do much, only to revise Article 28 of the Labor Standards Act. We are not asking you to do much, only to withdraw lawsuits against these laid-off workers,” Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) spokeswoman of Raged Citizens Act Now told the crowd during a rally before the hunger strike started.
“Why is the government going after these elderly, retired workers who are mostly economically disadvantaged instead of chasing fugitives who have committed financial crimes that have a much larger impact on society?” she said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Article 28 stipulates that unpaid salaries take priority in debt repayment after a company declares bankruptcy. However, activists and workers want retirement and severance payments to be added to the clause and be given the same degree of repayment priority.
She said that if the government does not respond positively to the protesters’ demands, unionists and activists would mull launching a large-scale strike.
Many factories in the textile or electronics industries closed in 1996, leaving hundreds of laid-off workers without retirement payouts or months of unpaid wages.
After a series of demonstrations, the council decided to give the laid-off workers retirement payouts as loans, and promised that it would ask the workers’ employers to repay the debts.
However, beginning last year, all workers who accepted the loans were asked to repay them, and those who are unable to repay them were sued by the council.
Lin Tzu-wen (林子文), one of the protesters, said he had taken part in a hunger strike in front of the council building 16 years ago.
“Twenty-eight hours into the hunger strike 16 years ago, council officials finally came out to negotiate with us, and eventually came up with the loan program,” Lin said. “Apparently the council lied to us about not asking us to repay, so here we are again.”
He added that by taking part in the hunger strike, he and his peers were turning their bodies into a channel of protest, “because we workers have nothing left but our bodies.”
The protest was largely peaceful. However, clashes broke out between the protesters and the police because the council would not allow the protesters to use the toilets inside the building.
Workers then set up their own temporary toilets using a large banner, plastic chairs and garbage bags.
However, when some protesters tried to use the toilets, police officers confiscated their equipment, and said the protesters were violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
The police later agreed to help negotiate with the council to allow the protesters to use the toilets.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS