Teachers at private institutions call for protection of rights

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

Mon, Apr 27, 2015 - Page 3

Teachers’ advocacy groups yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to better protect the labor rights of teachers at private institutions.

The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions said that private-school teachers are often stripped of their rights to unionize, making them more vulnerable to exploitation than their counterparts in public institutions.

The group said that teachers at private institutions are increasingly facing unreasonable demands from their employers, amid a dwindling national birth rate and decreasing attendance at private institutions.

Teachers at private institutions are often barred from applying for seniority-based pay raises, despite an administrative order by the ministry that wages at private institutions should not be lower than wages at public schools, the group said.

The group demanded equal rights for educators at public and private institutions, in anticipation of a legislative review of the Teachers’ Compensation Act (教師待遇條例), which is scheduled to take place today.

Yunlin Teachers’ Association president Hsu I-chun (許逸軍) urged the ministry to protect the rights of teachers to join unions, citing an example from Da-Cheng Vocational High School.

Hsu said Da-Cheng demanded that its teachers sign an agreement to abstain from obtaining union membership, while those who were already members were forced to sign an agreement to renounce union membership.

“In order to oppress our organization, Da-Cheng installed surveillance cameras around the offices and classrooms of union leaders at the school and prevented union members from teaching classes,” Hsu said. “It was a clear display of neglect toward students’ rights to receive an education.”

Federation member Chao Yung-fu (趙永福) said that non-teaching employees at private high schools or colleges are vulnerable to overwork, as they are not protected by either the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) or the Teachers’ Act (教師法), which cap work hours at 84 per two weeks and 40 hours per week, respectively.