Taipei Times
Date: Jul 03, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report placed Taiwan on Tier 1 in this year’s publication, which shows that the National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) strategy to curb human trafficking works, the agency said.

This is the seventh consecutive year that Taiwan has been placed on Tier 1 in the three-tier system. Tier 1 indicates the highest performance, it said.

However, although Tier 1 is the highest ranking, it does not mean that a country has no human trafficking. A Tier 1 ranking indicates that a government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking and has made efforts to address the problem.

The report, released on Thursday, said the international community is concerned about Taiwan’s long-haul fishing expeditions that might exploit foreign fishermen, as well as forced labor for home caregivers, domestic workers and migrants working in the manufacturing sector, the agency said.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 3, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–In an emergency meeting called Saturday, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) gave a directive that government agencies must get to the bottom of military leaks related to a missile blunder a day earlier that caused the death of a Taiwanese fisherman.

Lin called the meeting to manage the fallout from the unprecedented incident. The three-hour meeting was attended by officials from related agencies.

During the meeting, Lin said that the military leaks have posed a serious threat to Taiwan’s national security, demanding that the Ministry of National Defense review its existing measures to protect confidential information and the task force put together by the Ministry of Justice conduct a thorough investigation into the leaks, according to Cabinet spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源).

Tung did not provide further details on the leaks.

But separately, Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said earlier in the day in Kaohsiung that his ministry will look into possible military leaks, when asked about the actions of Tsai Cheng-yuan (蔡正元), executive director of the Kuomintang’s Policy Committee, who revealed the missile blunder in a Facebook post shortly after the missile was fired by mistake.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 2, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC, 行政院大陸委員會), responding to Taiwan’s Navy’s accidental launching of a missile, notified mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO, 國台辦) of the mishap on Friday.

The blunder resulted in a Taiwanese fishing boat skipper’s death, three injured but recovering crewmen, and a penetrated Kaohsiung-registered fishing vessel.

The government has attempted to handle the situation through the existing communications method with mainland China, the MAC stressed, according to the Central News Agency.

In a press statement, the MAC said that the council had received information of the case in the first instance. The government had also responded by setting up a national security mechanism to handle the situation.

“The Defense Ministry has explained the details of the situation,” the statement read, explaining that the matter was an “accident” due to “mishandling” on military personnel’s part.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 1, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–Taiwan Power Company’s (Taipower) labor union, whose 25,000 members have authorized union leaders to take “all sorts of actions” to deal with the management, said Thursday it would not plan any strike action for now after getting a “good will” response from Economics Minister Lee Chih-kung.

Union Chairman Ting Tso-yi said Lee, whose ministry oversees Taipower operations, has agreed to include union representatives in the process of deliberating amendments to Taiwan’s Electricity Act.

Lee responded positively to the union’s demand that amendments to the important act must be made in an open and transparent way and that the state enterprise’s union must be part of the process from beginning to end, Ting said.

“We care about this not just because our member’s rights and interests are closely related to the amendments of the law, but also because its amendments will affect the country’s economy and future energy policy,” he added.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 01, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Ministry of Labor on Wednesday issued a new directive, saying that from Aug. 1 it will be illegal for employees to work more than six consecutive days without a day off.

The new regulation replaces a labor law that allowed private sector employees to work 12 consecutive days and have two days off over a two-week period.

The decision to change the regulation was made in response to a Legislative Yuan resolution that stipulated workers must take at least one day off a week, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Hsieh Chien-chien (謝倩蒨) said.

The legislative resolution said that it is damaging to health to work 12 consecutive days, Hsieh said.     [FULL  STORY]