2 – Repeated violations of rights
The ITUC Global Rights Index

Taiwan

The ITUC affiliate in Taiwan is the Chinese Federation of Labour (CFL).

In practice

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President of migrant fishermen’s union forced to resign 21-10-2019

On 21 October 2019, the president of the Yilan Migrant Fishermen’s Union (YMFU), Wardino, resigned from his position, clearly under duress.
The union had been side-lined and criticised after it compiled a dossier of evidence of human rights violations in the Taiwanese fishing industry. Then the Nanfang’ao Bridge collapsed on 1 October 2019, falling onto fishing vessels in the harbour below injuring many fishermen and resulting in at least six deaths. In the aftermath of the collapse, the YMFU and the Legal Aid Foundation were prevented from discussing the possibility of legal representation with the families of deceased and injured migrant fishermen.
On 17 October, the Su’ao District Fishermen’s Association demanded that the YMFU president encourage fellow Indonesian migrant fishermen to denounce the trade union. Those unwilling to do so would be denied bonus pay. The protests failed to materialise, and the Fishermen’s Association continued to harass Wardino. The following day, the director of the Yilan County Labour Affairs Department led a visit to the migrant fishermen in Nanfang’ao. During the visit, Labour Affairs Department officials “casually discussed” recent controversies involving the Su’ao District Fisherman’s Association and the YMFU with Wardino.
During that visit Wardino “agreed” to resign. Labour Affairs Department staff were instructed to assist with his resignation, including with translation services. Then, on 21 October, the chairman of the Fisherman’s Association invited Wardino to his office, where he officially declared his resignation from the union.
The YMFU subsequently filed a request with the Control Yuan to initiate an investigation into the conduct of the labour department officials. In response, the Su’ao District Fishermen’s Association went to the District Prosecutor’s office to sue YMFU secretary-general Allison Lee for defamation related to comments made following the Nanfang’ao Bridge collapse.

Airline retaliates against union after flight attendants’ strike 26-07-2019

EVA Airlines retaliated against the organisers of a 20-day strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
which began in June 2019 by firing the director of the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union (TFAU), Kuo Chi-yen, two days after the end of the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, and bringing a lawsuit against union leaders, seeking damages of NT$34 million (US$1.09 million) for what it claimed was an illegal strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
mobilised by the union.
More than 2,300 cabin crew were involved in the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, demanding better benefits and working conditions, particularly for overtime on roundtrip flights, which can stretch to more than 12 hours. In an agreement reached on 6 July, the company reportedly conceded a bonus for short flights of $NT300, and a bonus for transoceanic flights of $NT500. EVA flight attendants also secured the right to take overnight rests from March to June on several routes to Tokyo and one flight route to Beijing. Many of the flight attendants’ original demands were not met, including overnight rests on other routes, the raising of the hourly wage on international flights and double time for public holidays.
The airline failed to respect the terms of the agreement, however, prompting a protest rally by TFAU in early September in front of the Ministry of Labour in Taipei. In addition to not respecting the agreement, which included a non-retaliation clause, the airline maintained its lawsuit against the union and demanded that TFAU representative Liao Yi-chin and deputy secretary Chou Sheng-kai be also held responsible for helping organise the strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
.

Vietnamese workers accuse employer of retaliation after labour dispute21-05-2019

A group of Vietnamese migrant workers at a food company in New Taipei City lodged a complaint with the city government in May 2019, alleging employer retaliation against a protest earlier in the month. Over 70 Vietnamese migrant workers staged a protest outside the headquarters of Mei Ti Foodstuff – a food company renowned for its bread and Western pastries – in Xizhi District on the 3rd of May, demanding the company pay them for working overtime and reimburse unlawful deductions from their monthly pay checks.

The rally drew help from the city government’s Labour Affairs Department and as a result, a settlement agreement was signed by the two sides under which the company agreed to compensate its Vietnamese employees for working overtime and return money deducted over the past two years.

According to the labour department, the migrant workers complained they had worked an average 16-18 hours a day without rightful remuneration. The employer was also accused of making unreasonable deductions from their wages by finding fault with their work.

Despite the settlement agreement, it was reported that the company plans to lay off five Vietnamese migrant workers, including several of the protest leaders. The company asked the five workers if they are willing to transfer to a new employer or plan to return to Vietnam, according to a city official familiar with the matter.

Following what the Vietnamese employees considered to be retaliation on the part of the employer, they filed a complaint with the city government and staged a protest.

On Tuesday, while accepting their complaint, Liao Wu-hui, a division chief at the city’s Labour Affairs Department, stressed that the department guarantees foreign workers’ work rights in New Taipei and will not allow the company to retaliate against its workers.

Strike organisers fired 20-05-2019

On 20 May 2019, Meidi Shipin Limited Corporation fired five factory workers who were seen as the key organisers of a strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
held on 3 May.
The workers went on strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
in protest at being made to work between 16 and 18 hours a day while not receiving overtime pay. Overtime hours were removed from the record by management. The strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, in which 74 of the factory’s 79 workers participated, ended the same day with managers promising to pay overtime compensation by 15 May.
Management did not keep its promises. Workers were not reimbursed for the overtime wages they were owed. On the original deadline of 15 May, management stated that they would delay payment for three days. By 19 May, workers had still not been paid, and management said they would delay payment for another ten days. Furthermore, there was no decrease in orders, and indeed workers continued to be made to work up to eighteen hours a day. On 20 May, however, management sacked the five organisers, claiming it was due to a fall in orders, which was demonstrably untrue. This triggered a further strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
and protest action, with strong support from the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA

Protester against the amendments to the Labour Standards Act detained at the airport10-01-2018

Hendrick Lui, a Hong Kong activist who came to Taiwan to join and support Taiwanese protesting against the amendments to the Labour Standards Act, was detained at a Taiwan airport for four hours before being permitted to enter into the country.

Ten union activists arrested by riot police23-12-2017

Ten union leaders and students as well as four lawyers accompanying them were arrested late on 23 December 2017 during a protest against harmful changes to labour legislation.

The proposed changes to the Labour Standards Act included a reduction in the mandatory break time between shifts, an increase in legal overtime and a reduction in overtime pay. Ten thousand protesters from trade unions, student organisations and labour groups gathered on 23 December to march to the Executive Yuan, the executive branch of government, to express their opposition to the reforms. They were met by police in riot gear who had cordoned off part of the route, confining the protestors and breaching their right of way. After minor clashes the crowd partially breached the police line and got through to a major intersection where protest leaders addressed the crowd.

Many participants dispersed after this but some remained, determined to deliver their message to the executive. They changed route several times, as they were turned away by police, and ten union leaders and students were arrested after protesters blocked the key intersection near Taipei main railway station. The protestors then found themselves encircled by hundreds of riot police and confined in one space for over an hour. Finally, all remaining protesters were forcefully dragged onto police buses and later dropped off summarily in surrounding suburbs.

During the protests, four lawyers present to represent protesters and mediate between the protesters and the police were detained on unclear grounds by the police but were released at the end of the night.

Teachers still do not have full access to rights 24-09-2014

Since 2010, teachers have the legal right to join unions and enter into collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
with their employers. However, collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
can only take place at industry and professional level and teachers are not permitted to enter into collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
at their workplace. Moreover, the Labour Union Act determines that unions must represent 50 per cent of all workers in the industry in order to qualify for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Currently, the union does not reach 50 per cent.
In 2011, the Ministry of Education asked municipal and county authorities to bargain with trade unions in public sector education which are eligible. Another directive issued by the Ministry in 2013 further requested the commitment of the bureaus to bargain in good faith with the unions. However, a functioning system of collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
for teachers in Taiwan has still to be established.
The right of teachers’ unions to represent members in labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute cases, particularly in public education institutions, is also restricted. Article 3 of Act for Settlement of Labor Management Disputes excludes disputes which shall be resolved through administrative remedies from the regular labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute resolution mechanism.
The teachers’ unions may only represent their members in the private sector for labour dispute labour dispute See industrial dispute resolution and civil litigation, except on disputes related to appraisals, promotions and alteration of employment contract. Nevertheless, the CLA makes it clear that its mandate to adjudicate unfair labour practices is not restricted by the above provision and that it will handle disputes of public school teachers on a case-by- case basis. Under the above restrictions, teachers’ unions are unable to discuss and negotiate with the Ministry of Education over the revision of the Teachers’ Act regarding teachers’ appraisal mechanism and its unilateral application by school authorities.

Irregular workers in universities and colleges are excluded from labour protection24-09-2014

On 1 April 2013, the Ministry of Labour registered the Labour Union of the National University (LUNU), which consists of full-time research assistants, contract staff, and part-time student workers. The CLA certified the union for collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
on 11 April 2013. Management opposed this decision, but the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled in favour of the union on 7 November 2013. LUNU and the Taiwan Higher Education Union (THEU) filed a complaint with the Bureau of Labour Insurance against fourteen colleges and universities requesting the school authorities to provide social insurance for precarious workers. According to a survey released by the THEU in September 2013, more than eighty percent of the part-time researchers and assistants were excluded from social insurance coverage in the tertiary education institutions.

Labour-Management Conferences undermine collective bargaining24-09-2014

In certain cases labour-management conferences are abused by employers in order to undermine genuine collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
. Labour-management conferences are a joint labour-management consultation system, comprised of an equal number of representatives from labour and management. In companies with no trade union, this system allows managers to conduct the election of workers’ representatives. Decisions are made by consensus or by absolute majority vote of the present representatives and are binding. The labour-management conference’s mandate covers matters related to labour relations, welfare, working conditions and productivity. The Labour Standards Act requires the prior consent of the trade union or the labour-management conference if there is no trade union before the employer may allocate the standard working hours to other work days and extend the working hours within the total allowable number of working hours, or put female workers on overnight shifts without paying overtime compensation.

Dismissal and demotions against trade union officers at Mandarin Daily News26-02-2014

The trade union at Mandarin Daily News filed a complaint with the CLA against management for illegally dismissing its officer Wang Fu-jun after the union had requested negotiations concerning the retrenchment of 44 workers in August 2013. Union members who challenged this decision and entered into negotiations with management were demoted. Workers who testified in favour of Wang during the CLA investigation were also demoted. On 26 February 2014, the CLA ordered the reinstatement of Wang, but the company decided to appeal against the decision at the Civil Court.

Agency workers unable to bargain at the workplace 06-02-2014

It is unclear whether agency workers have the right to join unions and enter into collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
at the company where they have been hired. In May 2013, there were 590,000 agency workers in Taiwan.
The CLA has produced a draft Agency Workers Protection Act on 6 February 2014 for review by the Executive Yuan. The draft seeks to limit the use of agency work to three per cent of the total number of employees in the enterprise for most occupations. Unions have criticised the draft law for recognising agency work. At the moment, agency workers are not covered by decisions of the labour-management conference and may be required to perform overtime work without extra pay.

Carrefour uses labour-management conference to avoid collective bargaining06-02-2014

Workers employed at Carrefour stores work seven hours a day without a paid lunch break and two hours overtime without pay. When workers requested to start negotiations concerning flexible working hours at the Shulin branch, management argued that working hours were determined by the labour-management conference. The company was unable to produce proof of an agreement at the labour-management conference. In 2013, the union filed a complaint asking the CLA to determine whether an agreement had been reached in the labour-management conference that was still valid. Moreover, the union argued that referring disputes to the labour-management conference was undermining recourse to collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
.
On 6 February 2014, the CLA prohibited Carrefour to use decisions of the labour-management conference to enforce its working-hour scheme. However, the decisions of the labour-management conference remain legally ambiguous, which can lead to abuses when it comes to negotiating collective agreements concerning issues that are part of a decision of the labour-management conference.

Anti-union discrimination at Kingcar Group27-07-2013

Union members employed at Kingcar Group protested against anti-union discrimination anti-union discrimination Any practice that disadvantages a worker or a group of workers on grounds of their past, current or prospective trade union membership, their legitimate trade union activities, or their use of trade union services. Can constitute dismissal, transfer, demotion, harassment and the like.

See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework

at the company on 27 July 2013. Management sent warnings and threats to workers in order to prevent them from joining the union. Workers who still joined were given assignments which were less paid than the assignments of non-union members. Moreover, the company refused to negotiate working hours and compensation payments for employment injuries with the union.

Anti-union discrimination15-04-2013

In January 2013, the trade union at the company Achem Technology Corporation filed a complaint with the Council of Labour Affairs (CLA) concerning unfair labour practices against three trade unionists who had informed workers about the cut of the end-of-year bonus and the retrenchment plan. Achem was laying off workers under a voluntary retirement scheme and re-hiring them under new employment contracts paying them only 70 per cent of their previous salaries. Management suspended the three union officers and locked them out of the workplace in March 2013. On 15 April 2013, their employment contracts were terminated. However, the CLA ruled that the union officers must be reinstated and compensated for the period they were out of work. The union believes that the CLA should impose dissuasive sanctions against employers in such situations.

Anti-union discrimination30-06-2012

A union officer at Yung Hwa factory owned by Kayaba Industry Co. Ltd and four union officers at Taiwan Airport Service Co. Ltd were dismissed by their employers in January and June 2012. The Council of Labour Affairs ordered the reinstatement of the dismissed workers, but management is not complying with this decision.

Exclusion from the right to collective bargaining31-01-2012

In January 2012, the Department of Labour in Taipei City declared that Master/PhD candidates employed as research and teaching staff by the National Taiwan University did not have the right to pursue collective bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
with the National Taiwan University (NTU) because they did not have an employment relationship with the NTU. The Council of Labour Affairs asked the Department to review its decision in November 2012.

Although the revised Labour Union Act has no restriction prohibiting agency workers from joining or organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. a trade union, the Collective Bargaining collective bargaining The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.

See collective bargaining agreement
Act has no provision including agency workers under the scope of a collective agreement.

Trade union rights for teachers at last – but with limitations01-05-2011

After years of waiting, the legislative amendments that came into force on 1 May allowed the creation of an education union. The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions (NFTU) was born, replacing the National Teachers’ Association created 12 years earlier, with 80,000 members. Teachers do not have the right to strike strike The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.

See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike
, however.

Limited intervention from labour inspections in the Export Processing Zones31-12-2010

The law is in force in the two Export Processing Zones of Kaohsiung and Taichung but the inspectors rarely intervene because they are largely controlled by an authority under the supervision of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Trade union members are first in line when it comes to dismissals31-12-2010

Even if the 1929 law on trade unions prohibits anti-trade union discrimination, it does not provide for penalties in case of the wrongful dismissal of leaders or members of trade unions. Many trade unionists are amongst the first to be dismissed during a restructuring or are dismissed for minor reasons.

Limited collective bargaining31-12-2010

Barely 5% of the work force is covered by the 49 collective agreements in force, the majority in large companies. The content of these conventions rarely exceed the minimum stipulated by law.

Fears over proposed amendment to law 30-12-2009

On 30 December several hundred members of 10 trade unions came out onto the streets to protest at a bill to amend the law on trade unions. The proposed amendment would give the government the authority to disband unions. Four of the protest leaders were held for questioning after demonstrators threw cow dung at the police.

Collective bargaining limited30-11-2009
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