Education union pushing to start negotiations in NTNU labor dispute

Taipei, March 24 (CNA) The Taiwan Higher Education Union will send a list of new member teachers from National Taiwan Normal University's (NTNU) Mandarin Training Center (MTC) to the school so that the collective bargaining process can begin, a union leader said Monday.

Under the Collective Agreement Act, a union may initiate negotiations if more than half of the employees in the bargaining unit -- in this case, teachers at NTNU's MTC -- are union members, union Secretary-General Chang Chih-lun (張志綸) told CNA.

More than two-thirds of MTC teachers had joined the union as of Friday, Chang said, and the union will submit the list of those teachers to NTNU within days to get the process going.

Mandarin language teachers at the MTC protested their working conditions on the NTNU campus Friday, complaining that they were not afforded basic rights under the Labor Standards Act, such as sick leave, marital leave and annual leave.

That is problematic, Chang said, because while most NTNU lecturers and staff are governed by the Teachers' Act, teachers at the MTC are covered by the Labor Standards Act, a status that was confirmed by a Ministry of Labor ruling in October 2024.

Despite that ruling, NTNU has yet to adjust its labor conditions to comply with the law, Chang said.

Tu Kai (杜愷), a Mandarin teacher at the MTC, told CNA at the protest Friday that MTC teachers are hired on only three-month contracts, raising concerns they could lose their jobs.

Also, if Mandarin teachers want to take time off, they have to pay their substitute's hourly wage out of their own pocket, Tu said.

To address those and other issues, the protesters released a draft collective agreement that requires the school to comply with Labor Standards Act provisions on stable employment, transparent systems for hiring, pay, evaluations and course assignments, and better salaries and treatment.

In response, NTNU said in a statement that it would verify the union's legal bargaining status based on the Collective Agreement Act and had also initiated a team to review the union's group agreement draft.

The team will consider the practical needs of MTC teachers as well as seek to protect student rights, ensure educational stability, and evaluate administrative feasibility and the university's finances, NTNU said.