Unions need better rules: advocate

Labor advocates yesterday called for reforms to make unions easier to organize in Taiwan, saying that stronger collective bargaining is needed to tackle persistent low pay among young workers beyond annual minimum wage increases.

Speaking at a news conference in Taipei honoring the annual World Day for Decent Work, Taiwan Labor and Social Policy Research Association executive director Chang Feng-yi (張烽益) said Taiwan’s unionization rate among employees has long remained below 10 percent, citing structural barriers, including the 30-person threshold, for forming a union.

“The threshold for workers to join unions is high, and the risks they face are also high,” Chang said.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Yueh-ching, center, and other labor rights activists hold signs during a news conference at the legislature yesterday.

Photo courtesy of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Yueh-ching’s office

Chang proposed moving toward a more pluralistic union system in which a union receiving majority support from workers could obtain collective bargaining rights.

Taiwan Labour Front Secretary-General Yang Shu-wei (楊書瑋) said that one change would be to allow outside industrial and professional unions to enter workplaces to recruit members, a practice he said is permitted in some other countries, but not in Taiwan.

Although starting salaries for young workers had gradually risen in the past few years, much of that improvement had resulted from minimum wage increases, he said.

Taiwan’s minimum monthly wage is NT$29,500 and increases to NT$30,900 from Jan. 1 next year. The ministry generally defines young workers as those aged 15 to 29 in its labor statistics.

“Companies need a mechanism for systematic wage increases. This cannot be addressed solely through minimum wage increases,” Yang said, adding that greater wage transparency was one way to support regular pay raises.

Ministry of Labor data cited at the event showed that 17.2 percent of first-time employees last year started at the then-minimum monthly wage of NT$28,590, while the median monthly salary among all first-time employees was NT$36,000.

Yang said unions can help workers negotiate pay raises, but added that Taiwan faced a more fundamental problem than some countries, where unions existed but younger workers might be reluctant to join them.

Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴) urged the labor ministry to raise the NT$40,000 monthly salary threshold below which employers are required to show the salary range in job postings, saying the threshold should increase as the minimum wage rises.

In a statement issued later yesterday, the labor ministry said the Labor Union Act guarantees workers the right to organize and join unions, adding that workers at companies with fewer than 30 employees can join with other workers to form, or join existing, industrial or professional unions.

The ministry said it would review the union rules after the Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade completes the approval procedures, including gathering views from stakeholders and consulting labor and employer groups.

The agreement includes provisions on strengthening labor rights and rules concerning thresholds for forming unions, according to the ministry.

On wages, the ministry said it is studying amendments to raise the NT$40,000 salary threshold below which employers must release pay information in job postings, with the new threshold possibly set at “a certain multiple of the minimum wage.”