Ma urges companies to raise salaries

Ma issued the call when receiving cadres of the China Youth Career Development Association (CYCDA) yesterday morning.

He said the Cabinet has decided to hike pays for civil servants by 3 percent not just to take care of government employees, but also to inspire local enterprises to follow suit.

“Now that the government, or the largest employer in the nation, will raise pay for its employees, I hope smaller local employers can follow suit,” Ma told the cadres.

The president reasoned that the government has done a lot to help local employers lower their tax burden, including reducing the business income tax rate to 17 percent from 25 percent, sharply cutting the inheritance tax rate to 10 percent from 50 percent, and increasing various tax deductions. “Accordingly, I hope local employers can also do a little more to help their employees,” Ma said,

He said that local small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which form the majority of CYCDA members, account for 98 percent of Taiwan's total number of enterprises and offer 76 percent of the job opportunities available for workers. “The SMEs have therefore played the most important role in raising the employment rate and reducing the jobless rate,” Ma stressed.

Ma went on to say that Taiwan achieved an economic growth of up to 10.82 percent in 2010, much higher than the corresponding rates in the U.S., Europe and Japan and running close to the growth rates recorded by Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. He expressed the hope that Taiwan's jobless rate could drop further along with the economic expansion.

Three Labor Laws to Take Effect on May 1

As three revised labor laws will be put into practice on May 1, Ma called for local SMEs not to worry about the implementation of these acts — namely the Labor Union Act, the Settlement of Labor Disputes Act, and the Collective Agreement Act — for the government has conducted intensive negotiations with local enterprises during the process of amending the laws.

Also yesterday, the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs announced that the three revised labor laws will be officially implemented on May 1, as a Labor Day gift for over 9 million workers in Taiwan.

Under the revised Labor Union Act, active military personnel and employees in the munitions industry which is supervised by the Ministry of National Defense, as well as civil servants, are not allowed to set up labor unions. Teachers can form labor unions, but are not allowed to call a strike. However, company employees are allowed to join both corporate and industrial labor unions.

Meanwhile, based on the Settlement of Labor Disputes Act, a labor union shall not call a strike and set up a picket line unless the strike has been approved by a majority of the members of the labor union via direct, secret balloting. Teachers, military servicemen and civil servants are not allowed to call a strike.

The revised Collective Agreement Act stipulates that employers cannot turn down collective bargaining requests from employees, and are required to raise counterproposals within 60 days after the requests are raised.

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