Members of the Taiwan Railway Union (TRU) yesterday asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to rescind the nominations of three Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) employees for the soon-to-be-established board of Taiwan Railways Corp and allow workers to elect members to the board, after two of the nominees were found to have committed criminal offenses.
“We are asking MOTC to rescind the nominations. It should submit a new list after workers hold a democratic election to elect people who will represent them at board meetings,” the union said.
“We heard that the transportation ministry is having its first board meeting on July 31, which leaves them with plenty of time to hold an election,” it said.
Photo: CNA
The TRA is to be incorporated in to Taiwan Railways Corp in January next year. The Administrative Act of State-Owned Enterprises (國營事業管理法) stipulates that at least one-fifth of the directors, who are to serve as trustees of a state-run enterprise who represent state capital, must be recommended by the institution’s labor union.
The TRA employees who would represent workers at board meetings — Wu Chang-chi (吳長智), Lin Yu-che (林佑哲) and Huo Shan-ping (霍善屏) — were nominated by the Taiwan Railway Labor Union (TRLU), the largest union at the railway company.
However, Wu was sentenced to two months in jail for sexually harassing a TRA employee and indecency, while Lin received a major demerit from the TRA for illegally setting up a Web site to sell railway tickets, the TRU said.
Wang on Monday said he was assessing the situation.
The TRU the same day issued a statement saying that Wang’s announcement showed that neither the TRA nor the MOTC had a full grasp of the situation.
“Please do not make us walk the last mile to a corporatized railway agency with criminals,” the TRU said.
According to regulations, board directors nominated by workers’ unions must be nominated in accordance with the unions’ democratic procedures, it said.
“The three board directors representing the workers are temporarily appointed to prepare for the establishment of the company and have not been elected through democratic procedures, so they are not official directors yet,” Wang said.
“Hopefully, the labor union will elect labor directors who meet the expectations of employees and the public in accordance,” he said.
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