CONSEQUENCES?The Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice said nurses reported the ‘one fixed day off, one flexible rest day’ rules made things worse

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 13, 2017
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

New Power Party Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) yesterday asked the Ministry of Labor whether it was capable of detecting seemingly obvious illegal working conditions for nurses at New Taipei City’s Far Eastern Memorial Hospital.

A netizen claiming to be a nurse at the hospital recently said that nurses at the hospital are forced to comply with illegal conditions.

At the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning, Hung said after learning about the conditions regarding “negative duty hours” and “repaying the hospital for taking days off” that nurses face, she asked the ministry on June 20 to conduct an ad hoc labor inspection of the hospital.

Hung showed a letter that she said proved that complaints about the labor conditions are true.    [FULL  STORY]

COMMOTION CODIFIED?Chinese Culture University professor Lee Chien-hung said that the Labor Standards Act always brings about endless controversy and haggling

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 13, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Labor rights advocates yesterday renewed calls for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to fulfil campaign promises to pass a minimum-wage act and criticized review standards as a meeting of the Ministry of Labor’s annual Minimum Wage Review Committee approaches.

“The government cannot keep avoiding this issue, as it was one of its main labor policy promises and is crucial to Tsai’s vow to combat low wages,” Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-liam (孫友聯) said, adding that while the New Power Party (NPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucuses have proposed minimum-wage legislation, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) legislative caucus has yet to take action.

“What is meant by ‘basic’ has never been clearly defined,” Son said, adding that the government has often changed its calculation standards, at one point seeking to make determinations based on a formula centered around industrial production and economic growth.

The minimum wage was most recently raised to NT$21,009 per month following last year’s meeting, with this year’s to be held by the end of September, according to the provisions of the Regulations for the Deliberation of Basic Wage (基本工資審議辦法).
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-11

Doctors are reporting that the birthrate in Taiwan fell in the early months of the year. That’s according to Huang Ming-chao, head of the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Huang says that from January to May, only March saw the number of new births break 15,000. Every month during this period saw the number of births drop by 1,000 to 2,000 on average from the same month in 2016.

The flagging birthrate reflects an ongoing demographic trend that has seen Taiwan’s population begin to age rapidly. There are predictions that there may be only 180,000 births in the country this year. If so, that would be the second-lowest birthrate in the past decade.

Huang said a feritility rate of 2.1 is needed for a society to maintain its population level. However, he said Taiwan is struggling to keep its fertility at 1, putting it behind the 1.4-1.5 common in many developed countries. Huang said the government must do more to help turn the situation around.    [FULL  STORY]

INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUE?A Ministry of Health and Welfare task force said the issue should be addressed by the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 12, 2017
By: Wu Liang-i and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

One physician is calling on the government to combat low birth rates, saying the situation is worsening.

Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology secretary-general Huang Min-chao (黃閔照) said this year is on track to be the second-worst for births since the economic crisis of nearly 10 years ago, citing a monthly average of 15,000 in the first six months.

Roughly 300,000 babies per year were born in Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s, but the number fell to 260,354 in 2001 and to 227,070 in 2003 and it has never recovered, leaving the nation with one of the world’s lowest birth rates at fewer than 10 per 1,000 people.

Since 2012 there have usually been more than 200,000 births per year, or roughly 17,000 per month, but the total might be well below 200,000 this year, Huang said.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-10

Taiwanese lawmakers say they will seek US support to attend next year’s Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), which is the world’s largest international maritime exercise.

The United States Navy’s Pacific Fleet hosts the exercise every other year during the summertime, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Taiwanese lawmakers from the foreign and national defense committee are scheduled to visit the United States at the end of July. During their trip, they will visit the United States Pacific Command, Luke Air Force Base and the International Turbine Engine Company (ITEC).

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said on Monday that it’s unfair that Taiwan, a long-term US ally, is barred from attending RIMPAC. Wang said North Korea is the only other Asian country that is not invited to participate in the exercise.    [SOURCE]