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EDITORIAL: Dispatch worker law a remedy?
That most people are becoming more frugal is a result of stagnant wages, because in real terms, salaries have not returned to their level of 15 years ago. This wage issue reflects the poor results of the government’s economic policies, but it also indicates the nation’s labor market has undergone structural changes in the past several years, with “atypical employment,” such as part-time, temporary and dispatch workers, increasing steadily.
On the supply side, most jobs being created are not paid well. On the demand side, it suggests that both the government and business sectors are becoming increasingly dependent on part-time and temporary workers, rather than full-time employees, to fill vacancies. According to government statistics, the number of temporary and dispatch workers totaled 539,000 as of May last year, an increase of 10,000 from a year earlier and nearly seven times the number of a decade ago.
Taiwanese firms know all too well that dispatch workers give them a more flexible workforce and allow them to keep down costs. That is because they offer dispatch workers lower wages and fewer benefits compared with what full-time employees receive and moreover, firms can easily shed such workers when times are tough.
No wonder that some businesses have over years exploited legal loopholes to use dispatch workers as regular employees in a bid to save money. The result is what we have seen today, a downward spiral in our economy: Wage inequality causes stagnant income and leads to job instability, which then result in lower consumption, lower marriage rates, a falling birthrate and lower overall productivity.
Earlier this month, the Council of Labor Affairs (now the Ministry of Labor Affairs) approved a draft bill that aims to govern the use of temporary contract workers. The government hopes the bill will better protect the interests of dispatch workers and help improve their employment situation, including salaries and work environment. It also hopes the draft could serve as a catalyst for bridging the wage gap between dispatch workers and regular employees and present a solution to the stagnant salaries.
While the draft calls for a cap on the number of such workers at 3 percent of the total workforce of a company or an organization to maintain job security for full-time workers and asks employers to make dispatch workers regular employees if their assignments last at least one year, neither businesses nor labor unions are satisfied with the terms of the bill. Companies believe the proposal does not fit their cost-efficient operations and would make it hard to stay competitive, while the labor side fears the draft would allow more companies to use dispatch workers.
The draft is likely to face opposition in the legislature and be revised before becoming law. Even so, its main objective should be to protect dispatch workers from being ripped off by sudden economic and workplace changes. It is also worth noticing that, unlike union members or full-timers, dispatch workers have no one speaking for them, even though their numbers are increasing.
The dispatch labor force is indicative of the structural changes in our economy and a response to firms’ need for a flexible workforce. Nevertheless, they must be used only to support existing manpower, rather than as a substitute for regular employees. The rights of dispatch workers must be protected, and the nation must also make sure that the dispatch system will not be abused to harm the work ethic of regular staff and undercut their accumulation of skills and know-how. For the economy as a whole, there is a danger to long-term development if this type of labor force grows out of proportion.
source: Taipei Times
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