About 500 former freeway toll fee collectors yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, demanding that the ministry reopen negotiations with them.
Following the introduction of the electronic “pay as you go” system this year, in which freeway drivers are charged based on the distance traveled rather than by the number of toll booths passed, toll collectors found themselves out of jobs.
In the contract between Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC) and the National Freeway Bureau, the contractor promised the government that it would help the collectors find new jobs.
Photo: CNA
Freeway Toll Collector Self-Help Association president Lin Bi-huang (林碧煌) said he was encouraged by the workers of closed factories winning their court battle against the Ministry of Labor.
He questioned the validity of the labor agreement, saying that the negotiators were not equipped with the full information during their talks with the bureau.
Lin added that the collectors were promised that they would be offered jobs that are close to their homes. However, some of them found out, for example, that they would need to leave their families in the south to work in the north, which was unacceptable, Lin said.
Photo: CNA
The company also exaggerated its success in helping collectors find suitable jobs, Lin said.
“It [the contractor] said that there were two job openings for cashiers at MOS Burger. In fact, between 70 and 80 people applied for the positions,” he said.
Some of the toll collectors said that the company even asked female collectors if they would be interested in becoming truck drivers or handling fish at supermarkets.
Bureau Chief Secretary Cheng Chorng-been (鄭崇賓), who accepted the petition from the protesters, said the labor agreement is legally effective and has been submitted to the Labor Affairs Department of New Taipei City for reference.
“The negotiation could only be reopened if the labor agreement, through legal procedures, was deemed ineffective,” Cheng said.
FETC spokesperson Rachel Chen (陳世莉) said the company has found 1,000 job openings within the Far Eastern Group for the toll collectors, which is twice the number of jobs needed.
As of yesterday, 309 collectors have been set up with interviews, in which 174 found jobs, she said.
Most of the jobs are in Greater Tainan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pintung, Chiayi and Yilan.
Among the job openings, about 20 percent do not require specific educational requirements, while about 30 percent require high-school education or less. Nearly two-thirds do not require previous related job experience.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to