Workers rally in Taipei, demanding better wages

Hundreds of workers yesterday rallied outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, demanding higher wages, increased employer pension contributions and clearer profit-sharing rules, amid a wave of strikes and strike authorization votes across Taiwan.

Participants representing dozens of labor unions from across Taiwan gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard before marching through nearby streets past the Legislative Yuan and returning to the boulevard.

Taiwan Solidarity Front Confederation of Trade Unions chairman Ho Cheng-chia (何政家) criticized what he felt was an outdated labor pension system.

Workers rally in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: CNA

Introduced in July 2005, the new labor pension system consists of retirement accounts for individual workers and requires employers to contribute at least 6 percent of an employee’s salary to the account every month.

The employee can voluntarily contribute an additional 6 percent to increase the amount saved. The total built up in the fund can be collected in a lump sum or as a monthly annuity upon retirement as long as contributions have been made for at least 15 years.

Ho said that it was time to increase the employer’s minimum 6 percent obligation, saying it was too low to ensure adequate retirement savings and that an increase would help make up for 21 years of insufficient contributions.

“We hope to raise it to 9 percent first and then gradually to 15 percent,” he said, adding that employers’ annual retirement costs per worker under the old pension system were estimated at about 12 percent of wages.

Government figures show that about 7.87 million workers had contributions made under the new system as of July, while an estimated 115,000 were exclusively under the old system as of December last year.

The new labor pension system is one of the two retirement plans that most workers in Taiwan qualify for.

The other is the “old-age benefits” under the labor insurance system. The current labor insurance premium is 11.5 percent of salaries, capped at NT$45,800 per month, with employers paying 70 percent.

Because of the relatively low salary cap, retirement benefits under the insurance system are limited to less than US$900 a month.

Both systems are run by the Ministry of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Insurance.

Ho also urged amendments to Article 29 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to establish clearer requirements for distributing company profits to employees, saying that economic gains should benefit workers beyond the technology sector.

Chunghwa Telecom Workers’ Union chairman Teng Ke-lien (鄧克?) said its Taoyuan and Kaohsiung branches had passed strike authorization votes, with other branches set to hold votes in succession.

The union, which launched the vote to demand higher pay amid what Teng described as record company profits, has about 20,000 members across 26 branches, representing nearly all company employees.

“Striking is just a means, not our goal,” Teng said, urging management to “respond positively” to workers’ demands, adding that a walkout was unlikely before year-end.

Under Article 35 of the Labor Union Act (工會法), employers are barred from retaliating against workers for participating in union activities or labor disputes.

Responding to the protest, the ministry said it remained “open” to raising employer pension contributions, but added that changes required “careful evaluation.”

It also highlighted environmental, social and governance assessment incentives for listed companies that voluntarily increase their contribution rates.

The ministry also pointed to minimum wage reviews and collective bargaining incentives to promote pay raises and profit-sharing, urging employers to consider raising existing employees’ salaries as the monthly minimum wage increases from NT$29,500 this year to NT$30,900 next year.