The Cabinet is set to agree to the main demands of unionized Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) drivers, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The train drivers on Thursday had delivered a petition to strike on the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and Double Ten National Day holidays unless a pay dispute was resolved.
The TRA is to be converted into a state-run company in January next year, but the government has not yet finalized multiple internal regulations for the new entity, including one relating to train drivers’ long-held demand to be paid for the time they are on call.
The heads of the National Train Drivers’ Union and the Taiwan Railway Labor Union (TRLU) delivered a petition to TRA Director-General Tu Wei (杜微) on Thursday, demanding that the on-call pay issue be resolved “as quickly as possible.”
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railway Labor Union
If the issue was not resolved, 99 percent of TRA drivers pledged to take the day off rather than work overtime during the Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept. 29, leaving fewer than 10 drivers on duty that day, the union said.
The TRLU said its goal is not to force a service suspension, but insisted such “strident” tactics were needed to force the government to address workers’ demands.
Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) met with representatives of the TRA on Thursday, the TRA labor union, and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
A Cabinet official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the government had “responded positively” to the union’s demands, and was hopeful that a “win-win solution” could be found.
Meanwhile, TRLU chairman Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰) said that the Cabinet had agreed to introduce a regulation guaranteeing on-call pay for train drivers once the TRA is corporatized, and would likely sign off on it next week.
The TRLU is to await the finalization of the regulation before announcing its next steps, Chen added.
Wang yesterday said that the Cabinet agreed “in principle” with the demands, and that he does not expect there to be a strike during the upcoming holidays.
Officials have arranged to meet with union representatives on Wednesday morning next week, he added.
Additional reporting by Cheng Wei-chi
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