A system of flexible working hours, as proposed by a group of business leaders to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier this week, would have a negative impact on workers’ lives, several labor groups said yesterday.
Their remark was a response to a suggestion to Ma by the business community that authorities scrap the current -working-hour cap of 84 hours over two weeks and adopt a “flexitime” system.
The business leaders said that this would give employers more flexibility in arranging human resources and working hours based on market demand.
However, if such a system was adopted, employees might have to work unpredictable schedules and long hours whenever the workload was heavy, the labor groups — the Taiwan Labor Front, the Taiwan Women’s Link and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU) — said at a joint press conference in Taipei.
Moreover, a flexitime system would give employers a reason not to pay workers overtime, TCTU secretary-general Hsieh Chuang-chih (謝創智) said. He added that long hours would increase the likelihood of accidents, as well as possibly damage family relationships.
In defense of their proposal, the business leaders said that flexitime is widely used in Germany.
However, Hsieh rebutted the point, saying that Germany has many different systems and if Taiwan wanted to learn from the European nation then it should learn about the whole package.
Hsieh added that Germany has a powerful labor union, unlike Taiwan, where labor--management relations tend to benefit employers.
The proposed system would have the greatest impact on female workers, said Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬), secretary-general of the Taiwan Women’s Link. Such a situation with women working longer hours would only make Taiwan’s low birthrate an even more difficult issue to resolve, she said.
Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), head of the Taiwan Labor Front, urged the government to listen to workers’ voices and not just those in the business community.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS