The New Power Party (NPP) and workers’ unions yesterday called on the government to establish a legal basis for workers to take days off due to high heat or offer better wages for working in hot environments.
Taipei alone issued 12 heat alerts in the past month, NPP Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said, adding that the number of patients seeking medical help due to heat-related injuries has also increased, highlighting the urgent need for regulations to protect workers.
Airport ground crew, construction workers, postal workers, caddies, delivery drivers, security firm employees and other workers, who have to endure long hours of work in extreme heat, have the right to refuse to work, and additional wages or subsidies need to be offered when they work under possibly harmful conditions, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
Only three of the companies that failed a heat prevention inspection last year were fined, with the majority of them given a grace period to make improvements, he said.
Chiu said the government needs to ensure that such grace periods have a strict deadline and increase inspections on companies with a violation record, he said.
Chunghwa Express Workers’ Union president Kuo Li-chih (郭勵志) said that employees work outdoors during the day and constantly move from high heat to air-conditioned environments, which exposes them to a higher risk of heat injury.
The union urges the company to adjust its work hours and offer subsidies for employees working outside in a high-heat environment, he said.
Taiwan Railway Industries Workers’ Union secretary-general Chu Chih-yu (朱智宇) said the Ministry of Labor’s inspections do not consider hazard from hot indoor environments.
The Taiwan Railway Administration’s engineers have to endure a high-heat environment when welding or doing intense manual labor, while they have no other tool than fans to mitigate the heat, he said.
These inhumane working conditions have caused nearly 300 people to quit their jobs in the past three years, Chu said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS