Taipei, June 27 (CNA) A protester suffered a head injury and was hospitalized after a clash with police at a demonstration in Taipei by labor groups against the government's recent amendments to Taiwan's labor laws.
Chen Jung-jou (陳容柔) of the Taiwan International Workers' Association was among a group of demonstrators trying to stick placards on the Ministry of Labor (MOL) building in protest against the amendments to the Labor Standards Act, which they said were "skewed toward the capitalists and against the working people."
A fracas erupted between the protesters and police guards at the building, during which Chen sustained a head injury that required her to be hospitalized.
The protesters were part of a league of labor groups seeking to initiate a referendum to veto what they called the "evil amendments" to the law.
Chu Te-chih (朱智德), a representative of the league, said the MOL's duties involve revising the labor laws to better protect workers' benefits but instead it has made amendments that will save costs for managers and make their work easier.
The controversial amendments to the Labor Standards Act were approved by the Legislature and were put into effect in January.
Under the revised law, employees can be asked to work 12 days in a row and work shifts with only eight hours of rest in-between, once the enterprise obtains approval from their employees and the relevant government agencies.
It was a change from the regulations that prohibited employees from working more than six days in a row and mandated a break of at least 11 hours between shifts.
Labor groups have argued that the new requirement to gain approval will be ineffective because it will be hard to enforce.
The amendments also allow up to 54 hours of overtime per month, an increase from the previous 46 hours, but caps overtime at 138 hours over a three-month period.
Another major change was made to the system for calculating overtime payment.
Before the amendment, overtime work on a flexible rest day was calculated over a range of hours, with workers being paid for the number of hours at the top of each range. Under the amended law, the pay is calculated based on the actual number of hours worked and it allows the option of compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.
On the issue of annual leave, the amended law allows for leave accrued in one year to be carried over to the next, in contrast to the old system under which employees were required to use their annual leave within a designated one-year time frame or accept compensation for unused days.
Wang Chin-jung (王金蓉), an MOL official in charge of labor conditions and workers' rights, said the amendments were not skewed in favor of managers. "The revisions were done in a balanced way, taking into account labor safety and management flexibility," she said.
(By Yu Hsiao-han, Shih Hsiu-chuan and S.C. Chang)
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