Following a three-month hiatus, dozens of retired workers from Hualon Corp yesterday returned to the Ministry of Labor building in Taipei to demand unpaid pensions.
They accused the ministry of procrastinating on the issue after the two sides reached a landmark agreement on a compensation scheme in November last year, which proposes to use funds from bank donations.
While the agreement has been described by media commentators as a major achievement for Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文), the workers said that Chen has failed to follow through on his promises.
Photo: CNA
Chen last year said that the former Hualon workers would receive their pensions over the Lunar New Year break, with Lunar New Year’s Day falling on Feb. 19 this year.
Over the past three years, the workers have launched a string of demonstrations against various government agencies, demanding that authorities help them reclaim pensions from Hualon.
The workers said that Hualon, which declared bankruptcy in 2012, owes its former employees about NT$1 million each after it failed to allocate retirement pensions as required by law.
The Hualon Workers’ Self-Help Organization yesterday demanded that the ministry resolve the issue within three weeks.
Dressed in their signature yellow cloaks with the word “anger” written across their chests, the workers chanted slogans and threw balls of crumpled paper at the building over the heads of a line of police officers.
“We were unwilling to come back here again today,” organization secretary Huang Yung-fu (黃永喬) said. “Every time we visit, we assume that we will never need to return.”
The Ministry of Labor said that the compensation process was delayed because the workers refused to withdraw their lawsuit against the banks until late March.
Ministry official Chen Yu-wen (陳毓文) said that the ministry has already received money from five banks, while the remaining 13 banks involved in the case are to transfer their funds to a ministry account by the middle of next month.
A court auction of Hualon’s assets in August last year prioritized compensation to banks and other creditors, leaving the workers with about NT$2,000 apiece.
The controversial ruling prompted the workers to file a lawsuit against the banks.
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