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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS