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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ex-toll collectors storm DGPA office
Former highway toll collectors yesterday storm the offices of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration in Taipei, demanding that the government pay more attention to workers’ rights. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
TAKEOVER: The protesters urged an end to all short-term contract public sector employment and reforms to prevent more workers from sharing their experience
By Lii Wen / Staff reporter
Thirty-nine former toll collectors were arrested yesterday after they stormed the Directorate-General of the Personnel Administration’s （DGPA） office in Taipei during a protest against their severance payments and the unfair treatment they said they have received from their former employer.
About 70 former toll collectors and their supporters took part in the protest, but not all of them entered the office and locked themselves inside.
DGPA Director Huang Fu-yuan （黃富源） locked himself in a small room as the protesters entered.
The protesters who got inside the office allegedly sprayed the walls and signs with graffiti.
The protesters accused officers of targeting them with fire extinguisher spray through a crack under the office door, but police authorities later said the spraying as an accident.
However, Taiwan International Workers’ Association member Chuang Shu-ching （莊舒晴） said the spraying was deliberate, as police used fire extinguishers on the protesters several times.
Police officers were finally able to enter the offices by removing the front door from its hinges.
Police officers were heard cheering when the door was “ripped” from its hinges, the protesters said.
The police then rounded up the protesters, tying their hands behind their backs with plastic cable ties.
Thirty women and nine men were later arrested.
The former toll collectors have held a series of demonstrations since the government switched to an electronic toll-collection system on the nation’s freeways and removed all toll booths in January last year.
They have accused the government of illegally classifying them as annual contract workers — who warrant smaller severance packages — even though many were employed as collectors for nearly two decades.
Protesters yesterday called for an eliminating all short-term contract employment in the public sector, calling on the Personnel Administration to carry out reforms to prevent more public employees from sharing the toll collectors’ fate.
National Taiwan University student Chen Liang-fu （陳亮甫）, who took part in protest, said that the former toll collectors’ plight showed the need for all workers to receive severance packages according to the Labor Standards Act （勞動基準法）.
A former toll collector surnamed Hung （洪） was reportedly seriously injured during scuffles with police yesterday and required several stitches at a nearby hospital for a large gash on one hand.
Hung, who said she worked as a toll collector for 17 years, said she was injured as police dragged her into an elevator.
“I really do not know what to say, apart from that I felt very helpless,” she said. “We spent all our youth — more than a decade — at this job, only to be left with nothing at all.”
Although Far Eastern Electronic Tolling Co offered the toll collectors chances to interview for other jobs, many were unqualified for the posts, which required candidates with more education, such as engineers or programmers.
While the company’s original contract provided a five-year compensation program for workers who chose to seek jobs with its subsidiaries, Hung said the former toll collectors needed more financial assistance, even if they found employment elsewhere.（Additional reporting by CNA）
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Police yesterday carry a protester out of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration in Taipei after former highway toll collectors and some supporters broke into the agency’s offices, demanding that the government stop hiring temporary contract workers. Photo: CNA
