Taipei Times
Date: Oct 08, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Labor should take direct responsibility for recovering workers’ pension
Former workers of Hualon Corp hold up a banner during a protest outside the Ministry of Labor in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
obligations during corporate bankruptcies, Hualon Self-Help Association members said yesterday, adding that the partial resolution of the Hualon case should not distract from the need for broader legal reform.
“Rather than celebrating inside ministry doors, ministry officials would be better off working to gain an understanding of institutional problems,” association secretary Hsu Jen-yuan (徐任遠) said. “Right now the ministry is not willing to face the problem of how to institutionalize subrogation for pension benefits.”
Under a deal negotiated by the ministry, banks donated 80 percent of pensions owed to workers by their former employer Hualon Corp from the proceeds banks had collected from the auction of one of Hualon’s factories. Additional payments are to follow from the future sale of a separate factory.
Association members protested what they said is the ministry’s slow pace in resolving their cases, laying symbolic “award” placards for being “deceptive,” “procrastinating” and “slacking off” outside ministry doors.
