POLICIES
Wage transparency urged
The National Development Council yesterday urged the Ministry of Labor to formally define low-wage workers as those with a monthly salary of NT$31,000 or less as part of a push to promote wage transparency, increase salaries and address the labor shortage. Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) said that the ministry is planning to propose the threshold of two-thirds of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s median total salary. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said that the ministry offers positions that meet the definition of low-wage and accused it of hypocrisy for offering low wages and leaning on contract workers.
BUSINESS
Uber acquisition opposed
The Ministry of Labor has formally notified the Fair Trade Commission that it opposes Uber Eats’ proposed acquisition of rival service Foodpanda, officials said on Wednesday. Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan said she does not support the proposed merger and asked to be informed before the regulator begins its review. The ministry would oppose the deal until the delivery platforms and the National Delivery Industrial Union reach a consensus regarding the union’s demands, such as those regarding pay and workers’ rights, Department of Employment Relations head Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) told reporters. The Fair Trade Commission said that agencies would be consulted when the proposed merger is ready for review. The commission said that it has not been able to begin the regulatory review, as the companies have yet to submit all the required documents.
EDUCATION
Staff member banned
The Taichung Education Bureau on Wednesday said that another staff member, the chief military instructor, implicated in the bullying of a high-school student who killed himself has been dismissed and banned from employment as an educator for two years. The educator — the former head military instructor at Taichung Municipal Feng Yuan Senior High School — was involved in the case of a male student, who committed suicide in February last year after allegedly being bullied by staff at the school for four months. The school submitted an investigation report in June last year, which was rejected. The school reopened the investigation and said the staff members’ actions did not constitute bullying, but were “inappropriate discipline.” The bureau held a review meeting in September last year and decided to suspend the school’s director of student affairs for one year. The student’s parents filed complaints with the assistance of the Humanistic Education Foundation, prompting the school to reinvestigate. As a result, the investigation confirmed that the director of student affairs and the chief military instructor had bullied the student, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Event traffic discussed
New Taipei City councilors from Banciao District (板橋) on Wednesday voiced concerns about the “traffic nightmare” caused by the annual “Christmasland,” which is to run for 48 days from next month to New Year’s Day. While Christmasland promotes New Taipei City, it is a “traffic nightmare” for local residents, Councilor Shih Yi-yu (石一佑) said. Despite annual traffic plans, congestion persists and the government should consider the impact of the partially suspended Taipei MRT Circular (Yellow) Line, City Councilor Huang Shu-chun (黃淑君) said. The New Taipei City Tourism and Travel Department is to announce traffic plans for this year’s Christmasland on Friday next week. Last year, the city government reported 7.62 million visits to the event.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future