Lawmakers and labor rights advocates in Taipei yesterday called for legislation to ensure that students are educated about labor-related topics before they enter the workplace.
Such education would prevent students from being exploited in internships or cooperative education placements, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
Universities should include courses on labor issues as part of the required curriculum, while employers should also receive mandatory labor-related education taught by professionals, she said.
Taiwan is known for many things, such as its National Health Insurance program and its success in containing COVID-19, DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said.
However, issues such as long working hours, low pay and other work-related problems also exist, he said.
Children should be taught about labor rights and related topics from a young age, he said.
Elementary students in Germany “know what a union is and know how to strike to gain the rights they deserve,” Liu said.
People cannot escape the employer-employee relationship in a capitalist market, he said.
Before legislation is introduced, the ministry could act by requiring employers to attend classes so that they cannot claim ignorance of labor laws when they are penalized for contravening them, Confederation of Taipei Trade Unions vice president Chiu I-kan (邱奕淦) said.
If a bill on labor-related education can be passed in the current legislative term, it would be the “most important [piece of] labor legislation” to be passed during the term, Youth Labor Union 95 representative Cheng Chung-jui (鄭中睿) said.
Many workers are not aware when their legal rights have been breached or, when contraventions occur, they do not know where to seek help, Taiwan Labour Front director of education Yang Shu-wei (楊書瑋) said.
Labor-related education is not just for people to obtain knowledge, it also establishes and communicates social values, he said.
The target audience for labor-related education should be expanded, and a dedicated group should be responsible for researching labor-related education policy and teaching materials, Yang said.
Legislation for labor-related education could help prevent labor disputes, Taipei Doctors’ Union representative Liao Yu-wen (廖郁雯) said.
Many labor disputes originate because employers and employees lack understanding of labor laws, she said.
Giving students correct information while they are still at school would lower the number of labor disputes and the costs involved, she added.
Responsibility should not just fall on the Ministry of Education, Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare general secretary Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said, adding that the Ministry of Labor should also be included in the efforts.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS